Where wireless broadband makes sense

This paper shows that in order to meet forecast user data demands using a fixed wireless broadband network in suburban and inner urban environments, a high density of base stations would be required. This in turn requires the development of a backhaul network to interconnect the base stations comparable in scale to a fibre to the premises (FTTP) network. To achieve an increase in the capacity of wireless networks to serve densely populated areas would require more spectrum than is available from the entire 'Digital Dividend' allocation, and the number of base stations needed to be installed would substantially exceed those used for today's mobile wireless networks. However fixed wireless broadband presents a feasible approach for other less densely populated areas.