Is 5G fixed wireless reliable enough for enterprise use?

5G FWA has matured significantly and is a legitimate enterprise option for specific use cases: backup connectivity, temporary sites, and locations where wired infrastructure is unavailable or cost-prohibitive. However, performance depends on tower proximity, line of sight, and network congestion. Most providers don't offer meaningful SLAs, so it's best used as a complement to wired connectivity rather than a sole primary connection for mission-critical sites.

Should we replace MPLS with SD-WAN?

Many organizations are migrating from pure MPLS to hybrid architectures rather than fully replacing MPLS. SD-WAN can achieve similar performance guarantees over commodity internet circuits, saving 50-84% on WAN costs. However, organizations with strict latency or jitter requirements—real-time trading, life-critical healthcare systems, or sensitive manufacturing controls—may still need MPLS for their most critical traffic while offloading bulk data to SD-WAN-managed internet circuits.

What is Network-as-a-Service (NaaS)?

Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) brings cloud-like flexibility to network procurement. Instead of fixed bandwidth on multi-year contracts, NaaS lets you provision dedicated internet connectivity through a self-service portal and scale bandwidth up or down in minutes. Billing is consumption-based, often hourly, so you pay for what you actually use. Carriers install a multi-service port at your location, and you control bandwidth allocation from 50 Mbps to 10+ Gbps through a management portal.

How do I choose the right connectivity for each office location?

Start by mapping locations against their criticality. Sites where downtime costs revenue or competitive advantage warrant DIA with real SLAs. Sites that can tolerate occasional degradation benefit from cost-effective broadband. Then add redundancy using different technologies—for example, DIA backed by 5G FWA provides resilience against both provider outages and physical infrastructure damage. Finally, use SD-WAN to manage the complexity of hybrid networks and optimize performance across your connectivity portfolio.

What role does SD-WAN play in enterprise connectivity?

SD-WAN is the orchestration layer that sits on top of your connectivity options and intelligently routes traffic based on application requirements and real-time circuit performance. It enables hybrid networks—combining DIA, broadband, 5G, and MPLS—by automatically steering critical traffic over reliable circuits and shifting to backup paths when primary connections degrade. SD-WAN has become table stakes for organizations running multi-technology networks.

Enterprise Network Guide

Enterprise Connectivity Options in 2026: A Decision-Maker's Guide

Choosing the right connectivity mix for your business has never been more complex—or more critical. Here's what IT leaders need to know.

February 15, 2026•18 min read•Stephen Hancock

Enterprise Connectivity in 2026: Quick Summary

Enterprise connectivity now spans 9+ options from budget broadband to dedicated fiber, with 5G, satellite, and NaaS filling gaps. The smartest organizations build hybrid networks balancing cost, performance, and resilience—orchestrated by SD-WAN.

Key Takeaways:

DIA: Gold standard for mission-critical sites with 99.99%+ SLAs and symmetrical speeds
Business broadband: Cost-effective for branches, but limited SLAs and asymmetrical speeds
5G FWA & LEO satellite: Legitimate for backup, temporary, and underserved locations
MPLS: Still essential for latency-sensitive apps, but hybrid architectures are replacing pure MPLS
NaaS: Cloud-like flexibility with consumption-based billing and on-demand bandwidth scaling
SD-WAN: The orchestration layer that makes hybrid connectivity manageable and optimized

Five years ago, most enterprise connectivity decisions came down to a simple question: how much bandwidth do we need? Today, the calculus is far more nuanced. Remote and hybrid workforces have distributed your network edge. Cloud-first architectures have shifted where your critical applications live. And the proliferation of connectivity options—from traditional fiber to 5G fixed wireless to satellite to on-demand bandwidth services—means you have more choices than ever.

More choices also means more complexity. Each connectivity type comes with its own cost structure, performance characteristics, and reliability profile. Get the mix wrong, and you're either overpaying for capacity you don't need or underserving locations that can't afford downtime. This guide breaks down the major connectivity options available in 2026, explains the tradeoffs, and helps you think through which combinations make sense for your organization.

1. Dedicated Internet Access (DIA)

DIA is the gold standard for enterprise connectivity. When you purchase a DIA circuit, you're buying a dedicated pipe between your location and your provider's network—no sharing with neighbors, no competing for bandwidth during peak hours.

What Makes DIA Different

Service Level Agreements guarantee availability (typically 99.99% or higher), latency thresholds, jitter limits, and mean time to repair
Speeds are always symmetrical—upload matches download, critical for cloud, video conferencing, and large data transfers
Oversubscription ratios near 1:1, compared to 20:1 or higher for broadband—you get what you pay for

Best for:

Headquarters, data centers, and any location where downtime directly impacts revenue or operations.

2. Business Internet (Broadband)

Business broadband occupies the middle ground between residential service and dedicated access. You're still on a shared network, but you typically get better support, static IP addresses, and terms of service that actually allow commercial use.

Key Considerations

The oversubscription reality

Providers oversubscribe their networks to keep prices accessible. During normal usage, speeds will be close to advertised rates. During peak periods, performance can degrade.

Symmetrical vs. asymmetrical

Traditional broadband is asymmetrical: download far exceeds upload. A 500/50 Mbps connection becomes a bottleneck when pushing video upstream, syncing large files, or running backups. Some providers now offer symmetrical business broadband over fiber, closing the gap with DIA—though typically without SLA guarantees.

What you won't get

Business broadband generally doesn't include SLAs for availability, latency, or jitter. Support is better than residential, but you're unlikely to get a four-hour repair commitment.

Best for:

Branch offices, retail locations, and secondary sites where some downtime is tolerable.

3. Home Internet (Residential Broadband)

Some organizations are tempted to use residential internet for small offices, temporary locations, or remote workers. It's cheap, it's available, and it technically works—but there are significant hidden costs.

Hidden Costs of Residential Internet

!Even higher oversubscription ratios than business service—your "gigabit" connection may deliver a fraction during peak hours
!Terms of service typically prohibit commercial use—providers can throttle or terminate service
!Longer support queues, multi-day truck rolls, and zero performance accountability

Best for:

Remote employee home offices (as a supplement with VPN access, not a primary business connection).

4. 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)

5G FWA has matured significantly and now represents a legitimate enterprise connectivity option. A fixed wireless antenna at your location communicates with a nearby cell tower, delivering internet connectivity without running physical cables. Modern 5G networks can deliver speeds competitive with fiber in optimal conditions.

For a deeper look at enterprise 5G costs and deployment strategies, see our 5G Enterprise Migration Guide.

The Reality Check

Performance depends heavily on tower proximity, line of sight, network congestion, and even weather conditions. Latency is typically higher and more variable than wired alternatives. Most providers don't offer meaningful SLAs.

That said, 5G FWA has found its niche: rapid deployment for new locations, redundant connectivity for failover scenarios, and primary service for areas where wired infrastructure isn't available or cost-effective.

Best for:

Temporary sites, backup connectivity, and locations where wired options are limited or cost-prohibitive.

5. Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite

LEO satellite internet has moved from novelty to necessity for certain use cases. Unlike traditional geostationary satellite (with its painful 600+ millisecond latency), LEO constellations orbit much closer to Earth, delivering latency comparable to terrestrial wireless.

What's Improved

+50-200+ Mbps with 20-50ms latency
+Usable for video conferencing and cloud apps
+Expanding coverage and competitive pricing

What's Still Challenging

!Speeds vary based on area congestion
!Weather and obstructions can impact service
!Enterprise SLAs still maturing

Best for:

Remote locations, maritime and mobile applications, and backup connectivity where terrestrial options are limited.

6. Dark Fiber

At the opposite end of the spectrum from wireless sits dark fiber—raw, unlit fiber optic cables that you lease and light with your own equipment. Dark fiber gives you complete control over your network infrastructure. You're not buying bandwidth; you're leasing physical infrastructure and can push as much capacity over it as your equipment supports.

Key Characteristics

The Appeal

+ Complete control over your infrastructure
+ Unlimited bandwidth (equipment-dependent)
+ Compelling economics at scale

The Commitment

! Capital investment in optical equipment
! Technical expertise required
! Long-term lease commitments

Best for:

Data center interconnects, campus environments, and organizations with the scale and expertise to justify the investment.

7. MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching)

MPLS has been an enterprise networking staple for decades. It creates private, carrier-managed networks that prioritize traffic based on labels rather than IP addresses, enabling Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees that public internet simply can't match. The "any-to-any" connectivity model also simplifies multi-site architectures—rather than building hub-and-spoke VPN tunnels, MPLS provides direct paths between any connected locations.

The Tradeoffs

MPLS is expensive—often significantly more than internet-based alternatives. You're paying for guaranteed performance on a private network, and that premium adds up across multiple sites. Provisioning new circuits takes weeks or months, not days. And because MPLS is carrier-managed, you're locked into that provider's footprint and pricing.

Many organizations are migrating from pure MPLS to hybrid architectures, using MPLS for their most critical traffic while offloading bulk data to less expensive internet circuits managed by SD-WAN.

Best for:

Mission-critical applications requiring guaranteed QoS, organizations with legacy systems sensitive to latency/jitter, and regulated industries with strict network requirements.

8. Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) & Internet On-Demand

One of the most significant shifts in enterprise connectivity is the emergence of NaaS models that bring cloud-like flexibility to network procurement. Traditional connectivity purchases lock you into fixed bandwidth for contract terms measured in years. NaaS flips this model—you provision dedicated internet connectivity through a self-service portal and scale bandwidth up or down in minutes, not weeks. Billing is consumption-based, often hourly, so you pay for what you actually use.

How It Works

Carriers install a multi-service port at your location. Once that physical connection is in place, you control bandwidth allocation through a management portal. Need to jump from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps for a major backup job or live event? A few clicks and you're there. Scale back down when the need passes. Some providers offer tiers from 50 Mbps up to 10 Gbps or more.

The fine print: NaaS requires an initial port installation with a minimum term commitment. Availability depends on carrier footprint. Model your actual usage patterns to ensure consumption-based pricing makes sense versus traditional fixed contracts.

Best for:

Organizations with variable bandwidth needs, businesses spinning up new locations quickly, disaster recovery scenarios, and anyone tired of paying for peak capacity they rarely use.

9. SD-WAN: The Orchestration Layer

Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) sits on top of your connectivity options and intelligently routes traffic based on application requirements and real-time circuit performance. Without SD-WAN, building a hybrid network—DIA at headquarters, broadband at branches, 5G for failover, some legacy MPLS circuits—requires complex configuration and manual failover processes.

SD-WAN abstracts that complexity, automatically steering critical traffic over reliable circuits and shifting to backup paths when primary connections degrade. Your video conferencing traffic takes the reliable path while bulk file transfers use whatever bandwidth is cheapest. For a complete cost breakdown, see our SD-WAN Cost Guide 2026, and for security convergence considerations, check our SASE vs SD-WAN guide.

The Hybrid Network Advantage

The most resilient enterprise networks in 2026 aren't built on a single connectivity type. They combine:

Dedicated access where reliability is non-negotiable
Broadband where cost matters more than guaranteed performance
Wireless options for flexibility and redundancy
NaaS services for on-demand capacity scaling

SD-WAN makes that mix not just manageable, but optimized—and it's accelerating MPLS-to-internet migrations across the enterprise.

Best for:

Any organization running a hybrid multi-technology network, especially those migrating away from pure MPLS.

Connectivity Options at a Glance

Type	Cost	Speed/Performance	Reliability/SLAs	Availability	Best Use Case
DIA	$	High, symmetrical, consistent	Strong SLAs (99.99%+)	Urban/suburban, fiber required	HQ, data centers, mission-critical
Business Broadband (Sym.)	$	High, symmetrical, variable at peak	Limited or no SLAs	Growing in fiber markets	Branches needing upload capacity
Business Broadband (Asym.)	$	High download, limited upload	Limited or no SLAs	Widely available	Standard branches, retail
Home Internet	$	Variable, asymmetrical, inconsistent	No SLAs, limited support	Ubiquitous	Remote employees only
5G FWA	$	Moderate-high, variable latency	Minimal SLAs	Expanding, coverage-dependent	Backup, temporary, underserved
LEO Satellite	$-$	Moderate, variable, improving	Emerging SLA options	Global (with equipment)	Remote locations, backup, mobile
Dark Fiber	$+	Unlimited (equipment-dependent)	You control reliability	Metro areas with fiber routes	Data center interconnects, campus
MPLS	$	Guaranteed, QoS-enabled	Strong SLAs with QoS	Carrier footprint dependent	Mission-critical, regulated
NaaS / On-Demand	$-$	Scalable (50 Mbps - 10+ Gbps)	Varies, improving	Expanding rapidly	Variable demand, rapid deployment

Making the Right Choice

The connectivity decision isn't about finding the "best" option—it's about building the right portfolio for your organization's specific needs.

Start by mapping your locations against their criticality. Where does downtime cost you money, customers, or competitive advantage? Those sites warrant dedicated access with real SLAs. Where can you tolerate occasional degradation in exchange for significant cost savings? Business broadband likely makes sense.

Then consider redundancy. Even your most critical sites benefit from backup connectivity that uses a different technology and path. A DIA circuit backed by 5G FWA gives you resilience against both provider outages and physical infrastructure damage.

Finally, think about how you'll manage the complexity. SD-WAN has become table stakes for organizations running hybrid networks, giving you the visibility and control to optimize performance and cost across your entire connectivity portfolio.

The Bottom Line

Enterprise connectivity in 2026 is less about picking a single technology and more about assembling the right combination of options for your business. The organizations getting this right are treating connectivity as a strategic decision—one that balances cost, performance, reliability, and flexibility based on what each location actually needs.

The good news: you have more options than ever. The challenge: making sense of them all and building a cohesive strategy. Our telecom consulting team can help you assess your current connectivity mix, identify where you're overpaying or underserved, and build a network strategy that fits your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) provides a dedicated, unshared connection with guaranteed symmetrical speeds, SLAs for uptime (typically 99.99%+), latency, and repair times. Business broadband uses shared infrastructure with higher oversubscription ratios, asymmetrical speeds, and limited or no SLA guarantees. DIA costs more but delivers consistent performance and accountability. The key technical differentiator is oversubscription: DIA maintains ratios near 1:1, while broadband providers may oversubscribe 20:1 or higher.

Need Help Assessing Your Connectivity Mix?

Our telecom experts can analyze your current network, evaluate connectivity options for each location, and build a strategy that balances cost, performance, and reliability. We provide vendor-neutral recommendations based on your specific requirements.