RCR Wireless News

Fixed Wireless vs Fiber: The Real Trade-Offs

The Unmuted episode pits T‑Mobile’s executive vice president Alan Samson against the growing debate over fixed wireless versus fiber, outlining how the carrier is tackling the nation’s broadband expansion challenge. Samson explains T‑Mobile’s dual‑technology strategy: a flexible fixed‑wireless network that now reaches 80‑90 million homes and a targeted fiber build‑out. By allocating leftover spectrum on a sector‑by‑sector basis, the company has grown its fixed‑wireless subscriber base 80 % in two years while average speeds have risen 50 %, proving its capacity‑planning model works. He highlights concrete practices—stopping sales in oversubscribed sectors, offering a price‑guarantee with no ancillary fees, and delivering a Net Promoter Score that tops industry benchmarks. At the same time, he warns that rising equipment costs and fragmented municipal permitting slow fiber deployments, and that policy that rigidly favors one technology could create headwinds. The discussion signals that operators will need to blend wireless and fiber, keep pricing transparent, and push for streamlined, technology‑agnostic regulations if the U.S. hopes to meet escalating broadband demand without costly delays.