Massive MIMO

Nokia recently announced that it is introducing radios that will increase both the capabilities and performance of fixed wireless access (FWA) cellular broadband. The technology that probably will have the most impact on wireless performance is the use of MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) antenna arrays. Nokia recently announced that it will be deploying Massive-MIMO antennas that will allow for 16 layers of data transmission, up from 4 layers deployed in today’s cellular antennas. These coming improvements are going to mean better performance for FWA. T-Mobile, Verizon, and now AT&T are outperforming the rest of the industry with FWA. When technology improves speed and performance, FWA is likely to be even more disruptive than today. I’m still of the opinion that a landline signal is going to be more reliable than a wireless connection—but cable companies and fiber ISPs are going to have to lower prices to compete with FWA. Good news for consumers—bad news for stock prices.