Wireless Internet Surpasses Cable and Fiber in New Customer Satisfaction Survey

Want to be a happier internet customer? Get rid of the cables.

A new survey from J.D. Power found that customer satisfaction has skyrocketed for fixed wireless internet providers, surpassing even fiber internet — long considered the gold standard for speed and reliability. 

You’ve probably seen plenty of ads over the past few years hyping up internet options like T-Mobile Home Internet and Verizon 5G Home Internet. They’re different from the stodgy old internet providers, the ads say, with no surprise price hikes, hidden fees or equipment charges. It turns out their customers agree. 

Even though fixed wireless internet rarely reaches the same top speeds as cable or fiber, advancements in 5G technology over the past several years have significantly improved wireless internet’s latency and reliability.

“A lot of the concerns I had heard about fixed wireless access were that it’s just never going to be as fast as fiber,” Carl Lepper, senior director of the technology, media and telecommunications intelligence practice at J.D. Power, told CNET. 

“But for a lot of people, affordability trumps that. And it’s not often that you need superfast speeds, depending on how you’re using your internet.”

Add that to the simplified pricing that wireless providers offer, and you start to see why wireless scored higher in customer satisfaction than any other connection type.

J.D. Power’s survey broke fixed wireless internet into two groups: 5G home internet and 4G LTE. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all offer both 5G and 4G LTE service. The one you get will depend on where you live. Speeds on the 4G LTE networks are usually a fraction of the 5G speeds. T-Mobile, for example, says its 4G download speeds typically max out at 68Mbps, while its 5G network goes up to 418Mbps. But even with those slower speeds, 4G LTE home internet customers still had roughly the same customer satisfaction scores as cable internet. 

Price and convenience are wireless internet’s main assets

J.D. Power’s survey found that 5G home internet was roughly on par with fiber for performance and reliability. That’s a pretty shocking finding on its own. Fiber’s primary selling point is its superior speed and consistency, but evidently customers aren’t seeing much difference between the two.

Fixed wireless particularly stood out on cost of service. 5G Home internet led fiber in cost-of-service by more than 60 points — roughly the same differential as the first- and last-placed providers in J.D. Power’s study of internet providers in the North Central region.

Another report, from Ericsson, found that 7 out of 10 households with a fixed wireless connection chose it as a replacement for their previous internet connection. Convenience was a significant draw for these customers, with fixed wireless outperforming cable and fiber when it came to flexibility, customization and ease of installation. 

The American Customer Satisfaction Index also surveys internet users annually, separating its results into fiber and nonfiber providers. Fiber providers dominated everyone else, but 5G home internet still stood out in the “everyone else” category. T-Mobile and Verizon came in first in the nonfiber category, with scores of 76 and 74 out of 100, respectively — around the middle of the pack for fiber providers. 

How does fixed wireless internet work? 

Fixed wireless providers use the same 5G and 4G LTE cell towers that bring the internet to our phones. Because no physical cables are required, it’s become an increasingly popular way to reach rural areas with few other options. 

“They’ve really improved the technology. They’re getting much faster speeds than they used to,” Lepper told CNET.

Unlike fiber buildouts, fixed wireless rollouts “don’t need 30 to 40% market share for it to make sense financially. They need 2%, 1.5%,” Bill Baker, CEO of Nextlink Internet, a provider of both wired and wireless internet in eight states, said at a webinar hosted by Light Reading in March. “It’s a totally different ballgame economically on the fixed wireless side.”

This doesn’t just apply to rural areas, either. Because providers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon already have 5G and 4G LTE coverage in most urban and suburban areas, they’ve been able to compete in those markets without a major infrastructure investment. The most recent FCC data shows that fixed wireless internet is available to 97% of the country. 

Should you go with fixed wireless over cable or fiber?

Taken together, these new surveys present a compelling case for cutting the internet cord. The common argument against wireless internet is that it’s slower and less reliable than a wired connection. But that’s apparently no longer an issue for most customers. Unless you live in a home with a lot of users and connected devices, you probably don’t need higher speeds than fixed wireless gives you. 

The rest comes down to price. While rates for cable, fiber and fixed wireless look about the same on the surface, wireless generally has straightforward pricing without fees for equipment or installation. And unlike many cable providers, your price won’t go up automatically after a year or two.

I’ve generally thought of the internet hierarchy as fiber, then cable, then wireless. But this new survey data is making me question whether that’s right. Personally, I would much rather sacrifice a little speed for the knowledge that my internet bill won’t suddenly double in price. I’d still go with fiber wherever it’s available, but if the choice is between fixed wireless and cable, I think I’d lean toward wireless.