Wireless to Fiber

There is an interesting discussion that has been percolating in the industry for many years. Many wireless ISPs have extolled the benefits of building wireless networks as the first step to eventually build fiber networks. For over a decade, I’ve been a big proponent of this business plan and have worked with many rural internet service providers who entered new rural markets with wireless with the hope of eventually building fiber in the same areas. The business plan makes a lot of sense – get paying customers and pocket revenues to eventually fund the upgrade. As soon as I heard about the BEAD grants, one of my first thoughts was that this two-step upgrade business plan idea is dead. We are at perhaps the only point in the history of the industry when there is enough money to go straight to fiber by taking advantage of grant funding. Wireless internet service providers are still pitching building wireless networks to eventually migrate to fiber. But I am leery about accepting a claim that somebody building a wireless network today is going to eventually upgrade to fiber.