Broadband's Great Unwiring: Wireless Tech Upends the Market

REDWOOD CITY, CA – December 02, 2025 – The global broadband market is telling a tale of two vastly different worlds. On one hand, the overall equipment market shrank to $4.5 billion in the third quarter of 2025, a 5 percent year-over-year dip, according to new data from Dell'Oro Group. On the other, a technological revolution is quietly gathering unstoppable momentum. Shipments of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) hardware and next-generation Wi-Fi 7 home networking gear have both hit record highs, signaling a profound shift in how the world gets online.

This isn't just a story about new gadgets; it's about the strategic unwiring of the internet. While spending on traditional cable infrastructure plummets, wireless technologies are mounting a formidable challenge, siphoning customers in mature markets and bringing connectivity to millions for the first time in developing ones. The data suggests we are moving beyond the launch of individual products and into a new era of market-wide disruption, forcing incumbents to adapt or risk being left behind.

The Wireless Challenger: FWA Reshapes the US Market

Nowhere is this disruption more apparent than in the United States. For years, the broadband choice for most households was a duopoly between a cable company and a telephone company. Fixed Wireless Access, powered by burgeoning 5G networks, has shattered that status quo. By leveraging their existing cellular infrastructure, mobile operators like T-Mobile and Verizon have launched a full-scale assault on the home internet market.

The strategy is proving remarkably effective. "FWA continues to be a major bright spot in the overall Broadband Access Equipment market, with providers continuing to siphon away cable customers in the US," noted Jeff Heynen, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group. The numbers back this up. T-Mobile, the market leader, is on track to serve nearly 8 million FWA customers by the end of 2025, while Verizon is steadily growing its base towards a target of 9 million by 2028.

The appeal for consumers is multifaceted. It begins with competitive pricing and simple, plug-and-play installation that eliminates the need for a technician visit. But beyond the initial convenience, FWA is delivering on performance and satisfaction, often outscoring traditional cable and even fiber providers in customer surveys. This combination of affordability, ease of use, and reliable service has turned FWA from a niche rural solution into a mainstream competitor that is capturing the lion's share of new broadband subscribers and forcing cable giants onto the defensive.

A Global Engine for Access: FWA's Role in India

While FWA plays the role of a market disruptor in the US, its impact in India is one of profound creation and expansion. In a nation with relatively low penetration of fixed-line fiber, 5G-powered FWA is not just an alternative—it's a primary vehicle for bridging the digital divide. It represents a crucial strategy for operators like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel to monetize their massive investments in 5G infrastructure.

Instead of the slow, capital-intensive process of laying cables, these companies are rapidly deploying 5G FWA base stations to expand broadband availability across densely populated urban areas and into previously underserved rural communities. The impact is staggering. Combined, Jio and Airtel are adding millions of FWA subscribers each quarter, with Jio's user base soaring past 7 million in late 2025.

This approach transforms the economics of broadband expansion. FWA allows providers to offer reliable, high-speed internet in areas where it was previously unfeasible, creating new economic opportunities, enabling remote education, and connecting entire communities to the global digital ecosystem. Here, the technology's impact is less about stealing customers and more about creating them, demonstrating a different but equally powerful dimension of the wireless revolution.

The Cable Conundrum: A Pause or a Pivot?

Faced with this two-front wireless assault—FWA at the network edge and Wi-Fi 7 inside the home—the traditional cable industry is at a critical juncture. The Dell'Oro report highlights a staggering 31 percent year-over-year plummet in spending on DOCSIS infrastructure, the technology that underpins most cable internet. This decline raises a crucial question: is this a temporary spending pause or the beginning of a long-term pivot away from wired dominance?

The answer appears to be a strategic recalibration, not a surrender. Major cable operators like Comcast and Charter Communications are not abandoning their networks; instead, they are becoming more surgical with their investments. Rather than blanket upgrades, they are accelerating the rollout of the next-generation DOCSIS 4.0 standard in strategically important markets, particularly where they face the most intense competition from fiber. This new standard promises multi-gigabit speeds capable of competing with the best that fiber has to offer.

However, the pressure from FWA is forcing a re-evaluation of where to spend capital. It no longer makes sense to invest heavily in upgrading a wired network in an area where a significant portion of potential customers may opt for a cheaper, more convenient wireless alternative. This dynamic explains the slowdown in spending on current-generation hardware as operators conserve capital for more targeted, high-impact DOCSIS 4.0 deployments, all while some diversify into fiber and even wireless services themselves.

The In-Home Revolution: Wi-Fi 7 Sets a New Standard

The final piece of this transformative puzzle is happening inside the home. The record-breaking 124 percent year-over-year surge in spending on Wi-Fi 7 equipment shows that as the connection to the home gets faster, so too does the demand for a network that can handle it. Wi-Fi 7 represents a quantum leap in home networking, engineered for a world of 8K streaming, competitive online gaming, and dozens of simultaneously connected smart devices.

With features like Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which allows devices to use multiple Wi-Fi bands at once for unprecedented stability and speed, and channels twice as wide as its predecessor, Wi-Fi 7 eliminates bottlenecks and ensures that the full potential of a gigabit internet connection is realized in every corner of the home.

Interestingly, the adoption is being led by markets like China, where providers are aggressively pushing low-cost, dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers to consumers, often bundling them with new fiber installations. This strategy focuses on marketing the "latest and greatest" standard as a key differentiator, even if the full capabilities of the technology aren't immediately utilized. The synergy is clear: whether the internet arrives via a fiber optic cable or a 5G wireless signal, Wi-Fi 7 is becoming the essential technology for distributing that speed and performance, cementing its role in the future of home connectivity. Together, these wireless trends are not merely chipping away at the old guard but are actively building the foundation for the next generation of digital life.