With many mines, retailers, manufacturers and other businesses operating in remote parts of South Africa’s sprawling geography, fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions represent a fast-growing market. FWA 5G alone represented a market worth about R6.8 billion in 2024. However, older FWA solutions had a range of drawbacks that made them inferior to fibre.
Now, next-generation fixed FWA solutions are transforming how South African enterprises approach network design. Advanced technologies like beamforming have turned FWA into a compelling answer for a wider range of connectivity needs and a viable alternative to fixed lines. That’s the word from Jeremy Pather, Head of Product: ICT and Energy at Nashua.
He says that older FWA tech often performed poorly in adverse weather or uneven terrain, offered no service level agreements (SLAs), struggled with interference in higher-density areas, and had lower speeds and worse latency. This picture has changed with beamforming, which is a technique that reduces interference sources and focuses transmitted signals on specific locations.
How beamforming is transforming FWA
Beamforming from Hypersync enables service providers to offer fast, affordable and reliable connectivity in a range of rural and urban settings, even on sites without clear line of sight to wireless towers. Unlike traditional FWA, Hypersync FWA delivers guaranteed performance with SLA-backed assurances.
This ensures businesses experience stable, high capacity at all times, wherever they are, says Pather. “The technology offers fibre-like speed and a low latency architecture that enables seamless operations for VoIP, cloud computing, videoconferencing and other bandwidth-intensive applications,” he adds.
“It slashes deployment time, empowering businesses to establish high-speed connectivity very quickly. Furthermore, the tech unlocks fibre-class performance at a fraction of traditional fibre installation costs, allowing businesses to enjoy unwavering service quality in areas where deployment of fibre isn’t viable.”
SkyWire, a sister company of Nashua and a subsidiary of JSE-listed Reunert, has made significant investments in building out its Hypersync FWA network and has more than 400 towers nationwide. This has brought affordable broadband to many corners of the country where it wasn’t available before.
Hypersync is available with speed options from 50Mbps to 400Mbps, depending on the site. The technology offers MPLS and SD-WAN capabilities, and international breakout on a proven network, world-class encryption and security features, and access to a dedicated, 24X7 network management support team.
Why businesses are adopting hybrid network models
“We are seeing Hypersync FWA emerging as a disruptive force in the market beyond remote areas,” says Pather. “Many businesses are shifting towards a multi-layered approach, where they don’t rely solely on fibre. A hybrid connectivity model is gaining traction, integrating fibre, FWA, and 5G technologies.”
AI-driven SD-WAN solutions enhance this model by orchestrating connections for optimal performance, dynamically optimising bandwidth allocations and ensuring businesses don’t overpay for unnecessary capacity. Self-healing network technology enables traffic to be rerouted over a different connection when a link is down.
SUPPLIED.
