A few years ago, signing up for home internet in Las Vegas used to be a lot more complicated and more expensive. The local cable company charged up to $75 to initiate service, even if you plugged in the equipment yourself. Renting the Wi-Fi router cost another $11 a month. Plans came with a data cap with overage fees and a one-year introductory rate. After that first year—surprise!—prices would jump significantly.
Then 5G home internet arrived. A wireless carrier started offering 5G home service at one flat monthly price, with no contract, no data cap, and no equipment fee. Within about six months, the cable company’s terms had changed: free self-installation, no data caps, and lower prices guaranteed for longer.
What a New Study Found
Las Vegas isn’t unusual. In a new study, James Prieger, an economist at Pepperdine University, looked at cable prices in communities across the country before and after 5G home showed up. Prieger’s study, The Impact of 5G Fixed Wireless Access Entry on Competition in the U.S. Residential Broadband Market, uses real-world data, analyzing more than 230,000 cable customers and what they actually pay.
After the first year 5G home arrived, cable prices ended up about 17 percent lower than they would have been otherwise. On a typical internet-only plan, that’s saving more than $11 a month.
5G home is the fastest-growing type of home broadband, with about 17 million households signed up. Cable companies didn’t wait to lose customers before they responded, and were quick to cut rates. Economists have seen this before. When a new airline threatens to start flying a route, the established airlines often cut fares before the newcomer’s first flight takes off. The competition brings down prices for all, even if they don’t directly make a purchase or subscribe.
Americans Win
Households are already saving billions of dollars on home internet. In fact, Preiger estimates over 5G home competition is saving Americans up to $9.5 billion every year. Much of those savings went to people who never switched. They kept their cable service and simply paid less for it.
Saving $11 a month, that’s about $130 a year. That’s a good chunk of change for your annual streaming service subscription, plus some left over. In addition to savings, cable customers got better terms too. Price guarantees of three to five years are now common. So are bills where the equipment fee is already included in the advertised price.
In rural areas, 5G home matters for a different reason. About one in nine rural Americans has fixed wireless access (FWA or “5G home”) as its sole high-speed, land-based internet option. For many of those families, it’s the first fast connection anyone has offered them.
Why Spectrum Matters
5G home travels over spectrum, the same radio airwaves that carry your cellphone calls. Given real-world constraints, the volume of spectrum 5G home providers have to work with determines the capacity for connections, and they can only offer the service where they have enough. Put simply in the report, “These competitive benefits depend on licensed spectrum.”
In 2025, Congress restored the FCC’s authority to auction spectrum and directed federal agencies to find 800 more megahertz for commercial use. The FCC held its first auction in four years in June, and another is set for 2027. Keeping those auctions on schedule means more people connected and further benefits, like those experienced in Las Vegas. This is not a roll of the dice and luck. This is deliberate investment spurred by clear direction from Congress and the Administration. And it benefits us all.
Learn More
Want to know how 5G home works? Read our overview of fixed wireless access.
