Press Release Headlines

Mobile Experts Forecasts Significant Growth in Wireless Backhaul Support for Small Cells, Reaching $1B in Equipment Revenue by 2017

Line of Sight (LOS) and Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) technologies to drop dramatically in cost

CAMPBELL, Calif., Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Mobile Experts released a forecast today, outlining significant growth for wireless backhaul links to support femtocells, picocells, microcells, and metrocells (generally known as small cells).  Multiple economic case studies are included, to highlight the impact of various backhaul technologies on overall small cell viability.

"Fiberoptic cable is the ideal solution, but is almost never available in the right places for high-capacity small cells," explained Dr. Jonathan Wells, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts. "We expect the early small cell market to use RF backhaul below 6 GHz, to address the initial market requirements for throughput below about 80 Mbps. However, by 2016 we expect significant adoption of multiband small cells with embedded WiFi and much higher throughput requirements in the backhaul. We anticipate an additional market segment where high-throughput millimeter wave backhaul links will be required."

"Mobile Experts has close relationships with the semiconductor vendors supporting wireless backhaul systems, as well as the operators looking at the ROI for small cells.  We have put together a forecast which reconciles the need for low cost and the need for high throughput performance, including a comprehensive comparison of Point-to-Point (PTP) systems and Point-to-MultiPoint (PTMP) systems. Our analysis indicates that the cost of wireless backhaul will reach the tipping point in 2015, making small cell deployment possible at a large scale."

Backhaul for Small Cells includes 85 pages of analysis and more than 58 charts and exhibits, including:

  • A five-year forecast for outdoor small cells ranging from femtocells and picocells to metrocells
  • A five-year forecast for backhaul links, including:
    • Non-Line-of-Sight and Near-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) backhaul
    • Line-of-Sight (LOS) backhaul
    • Comparisons with fiber and copper
    • Regional analysis of small cell deployment
    • Pricing trends for backhaul and related revenue projections
  • Technical and deployment details of backhaul links:
    • Analysis of Throughput requirements in various small cell types
    • Analysis of key regulatory and legal issues impacting backhaul
    • Predictions for Key Frequency Bands
  • Cost case studies, illustrating the CAPEX and OPEX impact of each backhaul solution
  • Analysis of the supporting semiconductor market and maturity of enabling technology
  • SWOT analysis of competing technologies

Companies mentioned include:

  • Airspan
  • Alcatel-Lucent
  • Alvarion
  • AOptix
  • Aruba
  • Athena
  • Aviat
  • BLiNQ
  • Bluwan
  • BridgeWave
  • Broadcom (Provigent)
  • Cambridge Broadband
  • Cambridge Comm. Systems
  • Canon
  • Ceragon
  • Cisco
  • Comba Telecom
  • ComoTech
  • Dragonwave
  • EBlink
  • E-Band Comm.
  • Elva-1
  • Ericsson (BelAir)
  • Escape
  • Exalt
  • FiberTower
  • fSONA
  • Fujitsu
  • Huawei
  • Intracom
  • LightPointe
  • Loea
  • Motorola
  • MRV
  • MTI
  • NEC
  • NSN
  • Proxim
  • Qualcomm (Atheros, DesignArt)
  • RADWIN
  • Redline
  • Remec Broadband
  • Ruckus
  • SAF Tehnika
  • Sagemcom
  • Samsung
  • SIAE Microelettronica
  • Siklu
  • SkyFiber
  • Sub10 Systems
  • Taqua
  • Tarana
  • Tektelic
  • Trango
  • Tropos Networks
  • Vubiq
  • WaveLab
  • Xilinx (Modesat)
  • ZTE

Mobile Experts provides insightful market analysis for the mobile infrastructure and mobile handset markets. Research topics center on technology introduction for radio frequency (RF) and communications innovation. Recent publications focus on Small Cells, Semiconductors for Small Cells, Semiconductors for Remote Radio Heads, Handset RF Front Ends, MIMO, AAS, and Macro Base Station Transceiver Forecast.

Contact:
Rachel Lorraine
Mobile Experts
Email
+1 (408) 540-7284
www.mobile-experts.net