Backhaul for wireless to hit $23B by 2012

The cellular backhaul market is expected to reach $23 billion by 2012, according to a new ABI Research study.
Backhaul currently accounts for about $14 billion in capital expenditures, the company said. ABI also found that Eastern Europe would replace Western Europe as the biggest backhaul spender, followed by the Asia-Pacific region.
“Today, most networks across the globe are still using T1 for backhaul, but in the next five years there will be a significant migration to Ethernet-based solutions and microwave,” said Nadine Manjaro, ABI senior analyst.
Manjaro said that microwave would be the dominant backhaul technology in most of the world, but that North America would migrate to Ethernet-based solutions and Latin America would continue to rely on T1 connections.
“In North America, the high cost of real estate to mount antennas and the high cost per megabit will impact microwave deployments,” Manjaro added. “Service providers should start shaping their strategies based on that assumption.”
The study also found that some predictions about the backhaul market seem unlikely to be fulfilled in the short-term, especially those related to anticipated widespread use of cable or IP-based solutions.