What Is Fixed Wireless Internet?

Fixed wireless internet is a rural internet option that connects one location, like a farm or a house, to the internet via radio waves. That means you don’t need a phone or cable line for fixed wireless internet, but you will need an antenna.

But compared to other rural internet options like satellite internet and DSL, how does fixed wireless work? Let’s take a look.

Fixed wireless internet uses antennas that are attached to your home (or near your home). These antennas beam your internet signal from your computer to a fixed location: usually a fixed wireless hub attached to a tower.

But you won’t need a large dish to get a fixed wireless signal, only an antenna.

Still, you’ll want to make sure your antenna has a clear line of sight to the tower. Any hills, trees, buildings, or other objects can cause problems with your signal.

The antennas that fixed wireless internet uses can be a lot cheaper than the cables other types of internet use. Especially in rural areas, where a company would need to build the infrastructure for a DSL or cable service from scratch.

The towers that fixed wireless antennas are attached to are land-based—you might even confuse one with a cell tower. And because they’re much closer to the ground than a satellite, fixed wireless users experience fewer issues with weather than satellite internet users might.

That said, rain and fog can still play havoc on a fixed wireless connection. But don’t worry if there’s a storm in the next county over. Because the fixed wireless signal is short ranged, there’s a smaller area that could be affected by bad weather.

Because fixed wireless internet antennas are attached to land-based towers that are typically about 10 miles from your home, you’ll get a lot less lag, or latency, with this kind of connection than with satellite internet.

That short distance between your fixed wireless antenna and the tower means you’ll probably see latency that matches what you’d get with DSL internet.

You see, a satellite internet signal has to travel thousands of miles between your computer and the satellite hanging out in Earth’s orbit. That massive distance causes your online games to lag and your videos to buffer while your computer waits for a signal.