At MWC25, the 2025 Global FWA Industry Evolution Roundtable and the 4th ELTE FWA Club Event were held successfully. The roundtable, focused on the theme FWA, Monetizing 5G-A and Unlocking AItoH (Artificial Intelligence to the Home) Potential, gathered more than 80 participants from global operators and regulatory organizations. Attendees exchanged best practices in FWA development and discussed emerging opportunities that are shaping the future of the industry.
FWA Leads 5G-A Experience-Driven Business and Drives Intelligent Transformation
In his keynote speech, Richard Liu, President of Huawei ICT Marketing & Solution Sales, highlighted that with advancements in spectrum efficiency and technology, FWA has emerged as a key enabler for expanding home broadband coverage and maximizing 5G investment returns.
With ongoing technological innovations, FWA applications have extended beyond home broadband to high-value scenarios such as gaming, video streaming, and remote work. Additionally, AI is facilitating the transformation of operators into smart home service providers. Huawei remains committed to innovation by providing advanced CPE and intelligent FWA solutions, working with global partners to accelerate FWA development and unlock greater commercial value.
FWA Applications and Technology Evolve in Parallel
During the FWA industry sharing session, representatives from leading operators and regulatory bodies across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe acknowledged the commercial value of FWA and identified three key industry trends:
- Upgraded Home Applications – FWA has evolved beyond traditional video services to encompass gaming, smart home solutions, and other diversified applications. AI is accelerating the development of these new services and enhancing user experience.
- Enhanced Network Capabilities – In the 5G-A era, network capabilities are advancing, and are made to support high-frequency spectrums, providing stronger support for FWA.
- Accelerated Terminal Evolution – The price of entry-level 5G CPE devices continues to decline, while high-end CPE performance is rapidly improving. Huawei has pioneered the launch of industry-leading Super CPE, integrating AI-powered smart antennas for superior performance, wider coverage, and faster connectivity. Additionally, Rain’s new AI-powered CPE has expanded beyond active speed testing on small screens to include voice control, external speakers, interactive selfies, and etc.
Exploration on Business Evolution and Solution Innovation
During the FWA industry discussion session, participants engaged in in-depth discussions on FWA solution evolution and business model innovation:
- New Network Monetization Models – Driven by the demand for differentiated services and continuous network capability enhancements, operators are shifting from traditional data-based billing models to experience-driven operations, allowing them to monetize differentiated network capabilities and significantly increase ARPU.
- End-to-End Service Optimization – Huawei’s newly upgraded Easy FWAi intelligent solution optimizes the entire FWA service lifecycle. It enables precise service provision to develop user sustainably, intelligent experience management to enhance user satisfaction, and efficient operations & management to reduce customer churn.
5G-A & AI Empower FWA to Create a New Era of Intelligent Home Broadband
At the conclusion of the roundtable, all participants illuminated a symbolic light representing the new journey of FWA, marking another milestone in FWA evolution. Empowered by 5G-A and AI, FWA enables intelligent and efficient service development, accelerating operators’ commercial monetization. In turn, FWA drives the growth of the intelligent home broadband industry, facilitating the widespread adoption of AI applications in home scenarios and delivering high-quality connectivity. As the FWA industry continues to evolve, more future home applications will be unlocked, further enhancing network value for operators.
During the third meeting of the ELITE FWA Club, held in Istanbul on October 30th, SAMENA Council CEO & Board Member, Bocar BA, who also serves as the Honorary President of the Club, shared valuable insights on the role of Fixed Wireless Access in advancing digital inclusion. He noted the successful commercial use of 5G FWA by GCC operators and highlighted the need for continued collaboration among ELITE FWA Club members.
BA emphasized that "Operators in the SA-ME-NA region and in the neighboring regions, including Central Asia, have invested heavily in 5G networks. However, satisfactorily monetizing these investments remains a critical challenge. This requires being innovative and collaboration-oriented in order to meet connectivity and digital transformation goals."
Given that there is a direct correlation between making use of 5G investments and empowering other sectors to achieve greater efficiencies through new use-cases of wireless technologies, FWA offers plausible prospects, which need to be explored. The ELITE FWA Club serves this purpose by inviting digital ecosystem partners to join the community and proactively exchange insights and deployment experiences as well as scenarios for common benefit.
The ELITE FWA Club aims to enhance efficiencies across sectors, driving innovation and accelerating digital transformation through 5G use-cases. Launched in 2023, in collaboration with SAMENA Council and members of the Council, including Huawei, the Club met for the third time during the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2024 (MBBF 2024) in Istanbul.
The Club's 3rd successful meeting was subsequently followed by a GCC Media roundtable to discussed 5G and 5G-Advanced positioning, and how 5G evolution can play a crucial role in driving digital transformation as well as economic growth. The executive-level meeting, which brought together leadership from SAMENA Telecommunications Council and Huawei, explored the transformative potential of 5G-Advanced and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technologies across the Middle East. BA advocated that 5G-Advanced will play a crucial role in driving digital transformation and fostering economic growth in the region. "By enabling the deployment of advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, cyber-security, and automation, 5G-Advanced will create new industries, jobs, and opportunities for businesses", BA stated in the media roundtable.
Given the anticipated role of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) in the development of 5G networks within and around the SA-ME-NA and Central Asia regions, SAMENA Council has announced dedicated FWA working group to focus on experience management, business development, and service innovation. This follows the creation of the ELITE FWA Club, which was launched in December 2023 in Dubai, and will receive member support and thought-leadership contributions from SAMENA Council as well as the Industry. ELITE FWA Club aims to provide opportunity for leaders in the ICT sector to delve into critical areas relating to the FWA business, to help foster innovation, customer experience management, and ecosystem maturity while advocating for commercial advancements in the FWA sector.
During the second meeting of the Club, held in Barcelona on February 28, Bocar BA, CEO of SAMENA Council, in his keynote speech, drew attention to the need to leverage both Fiber and FWA. “As the Club meets for the second time, it is important to remind ourselves that, while fiber has set the benchmark for fixed broadband service quality, speed, and reliability, the logistical and financial side of fiber deployment typically remains a feat to overcome. We should leverage unique advantages of fiber and fixed wireless access, for what can be achieved with both may not be achievable with fiber alone”, stated BA.
SAMENA Council observes that, within the SA-ME-NA region and the emerging markets, FWA, as an affordable highspeed home broadband access solution, is enabling Operators quickly recover investment costs. In gradually maturing digital economies within the SA-ME-NA region, particularly in the greater GCC region, FWA is contributing to Operator’s market share and revenue growth. Moreover, there appears to be a direct correlation in making use of 5G investments and empowering other sectors to achieve greater efficiencies through new use cases of wireless technologies.
SAMENA Council is collaborating closely with Huawei and other valued members of the Council as well as regional entities who have joined or will be joining the FWA Club and its supporting platforms, provided by SAMENA Council. It is important that the ELITE FWA Club members work together and proactively exchange insights and deployment experiences for common benefit.
SAMENA Council has announced that, to help increase FWA penetration in the regions, it will strategically support the creation and thought-leadership activities of the ELITE FWA Club, sponsored by Huawei, a valued member of the Council.
The creation of the FWA-centric club, which will receive thought-leadership contributions from SAMENA Council's FWA focused working group, sets a precedent in developing the wireless-access business and digital-inclusion possibilities for both end-users and enterprises in the region through collaboration among various regional stakeholders.
Operators in the SA-ME-NA region and, to some extent, in the neighboring regions, including Central Asia, have invested heavily in 5G networks. However, satisfactorily monetizing these investments remains a critical challenge. FWA will play an increasingly important role in the development of 5G networks within and around the Council's regions of focus, offering highly useful and scalable applications.
SAMENA Council views that major industry use-cases of FWA include Education (virtual classrooms, distant education, vocational trainings), Healthcare (remote health consultations, remote patient monitoring, remote health administration), Agriculture (environmental knowledge, precision farming, crop yields, real-time crop and livestock monitoring, resource management), Transportation/Mobility (connected vehicles, traffic management, roadside infrastructure management, dynamic route optimization, improved traffic safety, smart-city service delivery), Public Safety (emergency response, disaster management, coordination, critical service delivery), Manufacturing (connected AI-based, digital, and natural system, robotics, predictive maintenance, quality control, efficiency and productivity), Retail (inventory management, personalized customer experience delivery, streamlined operations), Environment (intelligent lighting controls, irrigation and water resource management, real-time environmental monitoring), Work/Job-Creation (remote work, seamless collaboration, video conferencing, cloud-based tools and resources), and Emerging Technologies (supporting growth of IoT, AR/VR ecosystems).
Launched in December 2023 in Dubai, the ELITE FWA Club is dedicated to fostering a dynamic, industry-wide dialogue to address technology, business, policy and regulatory as well as user-experience issues. Our mission is to enable Telecom Operators and digital infrastructure investors in collaboratively and sustainably enhancing returns on 5G investments while provisioning quality-of-service and end-user experience on 5G networks. For this reason, the ELITE FWA Club presents an invaluable opportunity for leaders in the ICT sector to delve into unique areas relating to the FWA business, innovation, customer experience management, and ecosystem maturity while advocating for commercial advancements in the FWA sector.
The ELITE FWA Club will hold its second meeting on February 28 during MWC Barcelona 2024.