T-Mobile US opened a fresh front for its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service, launching an offer to provide back-up to customers of cable and fibre ISPs in the event of network outages affecting home broadband services.

The home internet back-up service is due to launch tomorrow (6 June), complementing T-Mobile’s current 5G FWA service which it stated serves more than 5 million customers through a pair of existing tariffs.

T-Mobile highlighted the size of the potential market for its service, referencing data from consumer analytics company CivicScience which showed almost 20 per cent of US internet users report frequent outages in their fixed-line home broadband services per month.

The operator is offering 130GB of 5G data per month, a free gateway and a pledge of getting set-up and online within 15 minutes.

Earlier this year, GSMA Intelligence placed the US as the largest market for 5G FWA.

Operator metrics show the service is providing stiff competition to traditional home broadband services in the nation, contributing to subscriber gains for mobile players at the expense of fixed-line alternatives.

Globally, ABI Research expects 5G FWA subscriptions to hit 118 million by 2029, around 45 per cent of total users at that point.