WISP Access Point Market Insights: Know Your Network, Part 2
Welcome to the second installment of Preseem’s Know Your WISP Network blog series! This series brings you the latest data on the real-world experience of fixed wireless subscribers, networks, and equipment. Preseem’s Fixed Wireless Network Report relies on an extensive data set that features hundreds of real-world deployments across ISPs. By using the detailed metrics contained within the report, we’re able to bring you exclusive fixed wireless insights.
In our previous post in the Know Your Network series, we discussed a high level overview of the subscriber experience. We identified topics such as average vs. peak throughput, latency, and also download usage for fixed wireless subscribers. Continuing with our exploration of all things fixed wireless, we’ll focus now on examining WISP access point (AP) market insights.
During our examination of WISP access point market insights, we’ll uncover answers to the following questions:
- What’s the access point market share by count of APs?
- Similarly, what’s the access point market share by subscriber count?
- Which access point model is most prominent?
- Also, which AP model maintains the greatest number of subscribers?
Access Point Market Share by Count of APs and Subscribers
To gain a comprehensive view of the AP market share, we compiled data based on two metrics. The first metric measures access point market share by looking at the number of APs per provider. The second metric frames each provider’s market share on the basis of subscriber count. The figures below summarize the results of this comparison.
In both cases, it’s clear that the leaders are Cambium and Ubiquiti. Nevertheless, while Ubiquiti maintains the largest share of access points (51.9%), Cambium serves the largest number of subscribers (46.6%).
On the surface, it may seem odd that the provider with the greatest share of APs does not also host the largest number of subscribers. Put simply, Cambium is able to host more subscribers across a smaller number of access points due to the types of AP models it uses. For instance, the Cambium PMP 450m device comprises only 1.7% of the AP market, yet it constitutes 9.54% of the entire market’s subscriber count.
This proves that only looking at the number of access points or subscribers does not provide a holistic depiction of the entire market. This is precisely why we decided to also compile data based on the type of access point model being used.
Access Point Model Market Share by Count of APs and Subscribers
Gaining an overview of AP market share gets more complicated when considering the different types of AP models being deployed. We split the data into two sets to measure metrics based on both AP and subscriber count. By viewing the data across these two domains, access points that support a large number of subscribers are easily spotted. The following graphs exhibit the results of this investigation.
It’s evident that the Rocket Prism 5AC Gen2 access point is not only the most popular AP model used, but also the one with the largest subscriber count. It’s interesting to see that many AP models, such as the ePMP200 and the PMP 450m, support a subscriber count that is more than 3% greater than their AP model market share. These results suggest that a small number of access points can support many subscribers, depending on the model of AP used.
See how organizations within the fixed wireless industry are already using the subscriber insights contained in this year’s report by reading this Telecompetitor article.
Are you interested in seeing other fixed wireless insights?
Preseem’s Fixed Wireless Network Report contains over 30 fixed wireless figures spanning across 26 pages. Best of all, it’s free!
