UScellular’s Home Internet/FWA now has >100K customers
UScellular now has more than 100,000 Home Internet/Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) customers and it anticipates even more growth over the coming years.
In 2022, fixed wireless services accounted for 90% of home broadband net additions, according to Leichtman Research Group. In the U.S., Verizon is by far the leader in 4G/5G FWA ending 2022 with 1.452 million fixed wireless home internet customers. The telco added 384K, 393K, 379K, and 342K in the last four quarters. It now has 2.229 million FWA internet subscribers.
In a press release on Tuesday, UScellular Chief Marketing Officer Eric Jagher said they knew rural areas in particular would see great benefit from having a FWA solution.
“We continue to enhance our Home Internet experience for customers, and the growth and positive response we’ve received to this service has us excited for the future. As we celebrate this milestone, we look forward to further updating the service so we can soon surpass hundreds of thousands of Home Internet customers,” Jagher stated.
As UScellular continues to build out its 5G mid-band network, more customers will be able to realize the fast, dependable connectivity that Home Internet provides. Earlier this year, UScellular launched its 5G mid-band network in parts of 10 states and expects to cover 1 million households by the end of the year and 3 million households by the end of 2024. This network can deliver speeds up to 10x faster than its 4G LTE network and low-band 5G.
UScellular initially offered Home Internet on its 4G LTE network and has upgraded the service with low-band, mid-band and mmWave 5G in select markets across the country. Most customers today can access 5G speeds on the service, which has led to a doubling of the customer base over the last 18 months. The company currently offers self-install, plug-and-play internal antennas and routers and a professionally installed external antenna in certain areas. Later this year, the company expects to have additional self-install options available to help meet the evolving needs of customers.
Additionally, UScellular offers a free Internet Setup Coach for all new customers. Experts from Asurion are available via phone to help customers with router placement for the best speeds and getting all essential devices – like computers, TVs and doorbells – connected to their home’s Wi-Fi network.
As UScellular looks to further enhance and expand its Home Internet service especially in rural areas, funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will be important. Fixed wireless technology will likely be the best and most affordable option in many under- and un-served areas to help bridge the digital divide in the United States.
Indeed, UScellular has made it clear that it wants to use funds from the BEAD program to build more towers and serve more rural areas with FWA while increasing its 5G mobile coverage.
The telco this week reiterated the importance of that BEAD funding. “Fixed wireless technology will likely be the best and most affordable option in many under- and un-served areas to help bridge the digital divide in the United States,” the company stated.
About UScellular:
UScellular is the fourth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, providing national network coverage and industry-leading innovations designed to help customers stay connected to the things that matter most. The Chicago-based carrier provides a strong, reliable network supported by the latest technology and offers a wide range of communication services that enhance consumers’ lives, increase the competitiveness of local businesses and improve the efficiency of government operations. Through its After School Access Project, the company has pledged to provide hotspots and service to help up to 50,000 youth connect to reliable internet. Additionally, UScellular has price protected all of its plans, promising not to increase prices through at least the end of 2024. To learn more about UScellular, visit one of its retail stores or www.uscellular.com. To get the latest news, visit newsroom.uscellular.com.
References:
For more information about UScellular’s efforts:
https://newsroom.uscellular.com/connecting-us/
https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/uscellular-marks-100000-fwa-customers
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UScellular’s parent company Telephone & Data Systems (TDS) is signaling that it’s ready to explore “strategic alternatives” for the wireless company. TDS owns 83% of UScellular, which is the fifth largest wireless operator in the U.S. with about 4.2 million customers.
TDS’ board said it has retained Citi as its financial advisor and has hired legal counsel in connection with the UScellular review. In addition, UScellular’s independent directors said they have also retained a financial advisor and legal counsel.
The operator has struggled for the past several years to retain its wireless customer base amid growing competition from the big Tier 1 operators and new competitors such as the cable mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).
The news came as little surprise to the wireless industry. John Byrne, vice president of research, communications service providers at IDC, said via X (formerly Twitter) that UScellular has been a rumored acquisition target for at least 20 years. However, he believes that the company’s “goofy footprint,” which spans several states but is scattered across the U.S. makes it difficult to envision a single buyer.
Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, said that he believes a sale of UScellular is inevitable because the wireless operator hasn’t been able to turn around its losses. “The company has tried to run away from the competition and it has just followed them,” Entner said. He added that as a small service provider the only way to compete is to be “flexible and innovative” and instead of doing that UScellular launched pricing plans that were “me-toos” of the big operators.
Three years ago, UScellular hired Laurent (L.T.) Therivel as its president and CEO in hope that his leadership could turn around its losses. However, Therival struggled to stop the steady decline in subscribers. During the company’s Q2 earnings that it posted today, UScellular lost 28,000 postpaid net adds and ended the quarter with 4.2 million wireless subscribers, down from 4.3 million subscribers in the same quarter of 2022. It also reported net income of $5 million, compared to $21 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Potential buyers?
As far as potential buyers for the company, Entner said that he believes it could be any of the three Tier 1 operators but said that it’s likely that any potential buyer will shutter UScellular’s network and instead migrate its subscribers to their own network. Entner also said that the real value in UScellular is not its 4.2 million wireless subscribers but its spectrum.
The company is in the midst of deploying 5G across its mid-band spectrum. It owns mid-band spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band that it is currently deploying in several states. In addition, it spent $1.28 billion on 254 C-band spectrum licenses in Auction 107 and it is planning to deploy 5G in the C-band later this year.
UScellular also owns 4,341 towers and has been trying to grow its tower revenue by adding more tenants to its sites. Austin Summerford, chief of strategy, partnership and towers at UScellular, said during the company’s Q2 earnings call that it has increased its tower tenancy ratio from 1.44 tenants per site two years ago to 1.55 tenants per site today, adding that there’s room for it to grow revenue on its tower sites. In Q2 total tower revenue was $25.2 million, up from $22.9 million in the same quarter in 2022.
Another bright spot for UScellular is its fixed wireless access (FWA) business. The company said its FWA subscribers grew 66% to 96,000 at the end of Q2 and it exceeded 100,000 FWA subscribers last month. The company’s FWA subscribers are primarily on its 4G LTE network and it expects to offer FWA over its mid-band 5G spectrum later this year which Therival said will make it possible to more effectively compete against cable broadband offerings.
https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/tds-explores-strategic-alternatives-uscellular