William Webb

Radio spectrum is critically important to the functioning of modern society but is a scarce resource in great demand. Ideally, it should be allocated to the most valuable uses in a country and used as intensively as possible. Yet, we are far from this, with spectrum use entrenched for decades and much of spectrum unused for much of the time.

With the ability to be deployed more quickly than fiber at a possible lower cost–especially in rural, hard-to-reach areas–fixed wireless access (FWA) offers service providers another tool to give more people access to internet connectivity. A digital divide exists because provision of broadband is uneconomical. Both the terms of broadband subsidies and the desires of users require relatively rapid deployment, and FWA can be deployed much more quickly than fiber. It can also cost less, especially in the areas where a digital divide is more likely to persist.