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Microwave Equipment Market Hits $4.9 Billion in 2008, Led by Ericsson and NEC
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Market research firm Infonetics Research is reporting that worldwide microwave equipment sales hit $4.9 billion in 2008, up 23% from the previous year. Despite a tough macroeconomic climate, mobile operators continue to invest in mobile backhaul to accommodate rapidly rising mobile broadband traffic -- the primary driver behind strong microwave equipment market growth.
"The big trend in the microwave equipment market is the transition from TDM to Ethernet. Microwave enables mobile operators to make phased upgrades of their backhaul networks from TDM-only to hybrid TDM/Ethernet systems to packet-based all-Ethernet solutions in the future. This offers a scaleable and cost-effective roadmap for managing the escalating bandwidth demands driven by the mobile broadband boom, and future 4G deployments. Typically, operators will keep legacy TDM microwave for another 5-10 years to support 2G/3G voice whilst deploying Ethernet for growing volumes of data traffic," said Richard Webb, Directing Analyst - WiMAX, Microwave, and Mobile Devices - Infonetics Research
The report also noted that dual TDM/Ethernet equipment makes up the bulk of microwave backhaul equipment, enabling mobile operators to continue to support TDM for voice traffic and simultaneously leverage the higher capacity capabilities of Ethernet to manage the exponential growth in data traffic.
Among the vendors, Ericsson and NEC were in a neck-and-neck battle for the lead in the microwave equipment market during 2008.
Microwave is increasingly used as an access technology in developing countries where there is more frequently a dearth of viable wireline access alternatives for enterprises and organizations with growing bandwidth needs.
Tags: [infonetics research] [ericsson] [nec] [microwave] [ethernet] [backhaul] [wimax,] [4g] [bandwidth]
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