Fixed wireless access (FWA) has a role to play in certain market segments, but over time, it will be hard to find, AT&T Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches said on Wednesday at the Bank of America Media, Communications and Entertainment conference, Lightreading reported. This technology is simply not sustainable. In the long run, he doesn’t think FWA is good enough, which is why AT&T thinks it’s important to bet on fiber now.

He reiterated AT&T’s general stance on the issue, allowing FWA to make sense in certain situations, such as in rural areas, where fiber builds may not be successful or immediately feasible.

Desroches added that FWA makes sense as a “good by-product” that enables AT&T to transition these customers to fiber-based products at a later date.

Of course, AT&T’s rivals Verizon and T-Mobile see it differently–both are using FWA extensively to help drive growth in home broadband subscribers.

While fixed wireless isn’t central to AT&T’s connectivity strategy, the company does intend to improve its current line of FWA products.

Desroches reasoned: “Because, in the long run, the taxation of fixed wireless mobile networks…makes it a very expensive sub-optimal solution, as more and more demand enters the network over time. It’s not a good customer experience…that’s why we’re focusing on fiber. That’s our focus.”

On fiber, AT&T is pursuing a plan to build fiber to 30 million locations by 2025, up from about 18 million now.

In the second quarter of 2022, AT&T’s total broadband subscribers fell by 25,000, as the 316,000 subscribers brought in by fiber were still not enough to offset the loss of the company’s legacy DSL products.

Desroches thinks the pendulum will swing the other way as AT&T expands its fiber coverage, but doesn’t say when. AT&T expects subscriber penetration in its fiber service area to reach 40 percent over time, with fiber offering a 20 percent higher ARPU than DSL. “We’re at an inflection point where fiber revenue growth is outpacing traditional product declines.”

Desroches said customer payment cycles and related collection issues had returned to pre-pandemic standards.

Desroches said demand for mobile services remains very healthy and churn remains low. AT&T expects service revenue growth in the company’s mobile business to be between 4.5% and 5%, with ARPU (average revenue per user) expected to accelerate in the second half of the year.

All told, multiple factors drove the decline in AT&T’s business services segment, but AT&T believes it can do better in developing small and midsize markets.