According to latest findings of its Mobile Backhaul Research Service, ABI Research said that mobile network operators will spend almost $5 billion capital on mobile backhaul equipment to upgrade or transition existing networks to cost-efficient packet microwave systems.
The ABI Research report expected to see Asia Pacific and Western European regions retain their dominance of the market for microwave equipment. By 2017, Eurasian regions will have amassed an estimated combined market share of 61 percent.
In addition, mobile network operators worldwide spent an estimated $6.2 billion in 2012 on leased T1/E1 and Fiber backhaul services. OPEX for wired backhaul-related services experienced a CAGR of 2.2 percent.
“We believe mobile network operators are increasingly lowering their TCO,” said Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research, “by using Capex to replace leased T1/E1 and Fiber backhaul with modern, high capacity, cost effective, packet based microwave links.”
In contrast, Backhaul OPEX for leased copper-based T1/E1 lines was predicted to continue decreasing at a CAGR of -1.1 percent. By 2017, the market will generate only $4 billion. “T1/E1 based backhaul is no longer compatible with modern 3G/4G mobile networks,” Marshall explained, “and will phase out as operators increasingly transition away from legacy TDM systems.”
In the recently-published Mobile Backhaul Research Service report, ABI Research provides backhaul forecasts for T1/E1, Ethernet over Copper and Fiber, Cable, Microwave, and WiMAX. The analysis company paid close attention to the last-mile and the access layer of backhaul to create its latest backhaul forecast database.
Furthermore, ABI Research covered global and regional forecasts on data consumption, backhaul Opex, Capex for microwave, cumulative macro base station shipments, and revenue for leased backhaul access technologies for its report. It also tackled bandwidth demands and wireless traffic in order to determine what access technologies were related to backhaul and what data traffic could be expected.
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