Growth in 4G/5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) CPE shipments expected to accelerate in 2021, driven by increasingly wide availability of LTE and 5G-based services.
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) recently released the results of its first GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum device ecosystem survey.
Drawing on data from 25 device vendors across the 3GPP-based FWA CPE ecosystem, the data reveals strong market momentum with shipment growth expected to continue and accelerate in 2021 compared to 2020, with 31 percent growth for 4G/5G FWA CPEs and 23 percent growth for battery-operated hotspots.
In 2020, APAC (excluding China and India) represented the largest portion of the shipments, closely followed by Middle East and Africa, and then Europe. The association also announced today that there are now 43 companies in the GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum.
The survey confirms the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on changing work habits, with ‘work/study from home’ identified by CPE device vendors as the most important market trend for 2020 and 2021. However, as people around the world have gradually returned to their offices and schools in 2021, the launch of 5G services by operators has grown in importance as a driver of future growth in the FWA market. 25 CPE vendors of the GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum had answered the first edition of the survey.
