CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its Small Cell and LTE Backhaul Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, which provides insights into operator plans for small cell and macrocell backhaul.
ANALYST NOTE
“2013 was supposed to be the year for greater deployments of outdoor small cells, but installations haven’t proceeded as quickly as operators expected. It’s no picnic out there for operators. Costs are higher than anticipated, and many challenges remain difficult to solve, including siting, jurisdictional issues, unsettled local regulations, power availability, copper and fiber availability, small cell packaging with or without backhaul, just-coming-available technologies and products, and backhaul connections. Not to mention the coordination of small cells with WiFi or nearby macrocells over new types of backhaul that must support strict timing, sync, and latency requirements for LTE and LTE-Advanced in the future,” explains Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks at Infonetics Research.
Richard Webb, Infonetics’ directing analyst for mobile backhaul and small cells, adds: “This is in line with our recent forecast in which we project that operators will spend $3.6 billion on outdoor small cell backhaul equipment over the five years from 2013 to 2017, down from earlier forecasts based on operator plans.”
SMALL CELL AND LTE BACKHAUL SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Operators are finding that outdoor small cell deployments are more expensive than anticipated: more respondents now expect the 5-year TCO ratio of a small cell deployment to be 25% of a typical macrocell deployment, up from 10% in Infonetics' 2012 survey
- There is a big opportunity for point-to-multipoint (P2MP) backhaul topology in dense urban areas, but there are only a few manufacturers shipping P2MP products today: BluWan, Cambridge Broadband, and Intracom
- 1/4 of operators surveyed indicated they will use software-defined networking (SDN) in outdoor small cell backhaul networks by 2016 or later
- Downstream bandwidth capacity is a top service-level agreement (SLA) metric for backhaul services supporting LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A)
SMALL CELL BACKHAUL REPORT SYNOPSIS
For its 35-page small cell and LTE backhaul survey, published in January 2014, Infonetics interviewed purchase-decision makers at 20 incumbent, independent wireless, competitive, and cable operators from EMEA, Asia Pacific, and North America about their current and future plans for small cell and macrocell backhaul. The study provides insights into mobile traffic handling and specific backhaul issues related to outdoor small cells, in-building small cells, and macrocells (including LTE and LTE-A). The operators participating in the study control 46% of the world’s telecom capex. To buy the survey, contact Infonetics: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp.
RELATED REPORT EXCERPTS
- Infonetics’ February Mobile research brief: http://bit.ly/MEjLuy
- Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei and Cisco get top marks from operators in mobile backhaul wireline survey
- Major network changes underway, this time to 100GE and packet-optical
- Cisco, Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei named top router/switch vendors by carriers
- Outdoor small cell backhaul equipment expected to reach critical mass in 2015
- LTE-Advanced, small cells to lift microwave equipment market; Huawei bounces back
- Service provider capex increasing 6% in 2013, ignited by BRIC countries; revenue to hit $2T
UPCOMING RESEARCH
Download Infonetics’ 2013 market research brochure, publication calendar, events brochure, report highlights, tables of contents, and more at http://www.infonetics.com/login.
- Microwave Equipment Market Share & Forecasts (Feb.)
- Service Provider Routers & Switches Market Share & Forecasts (March)
- Ethernet Access Devices Market Share & Forecasts (Mar.)
- SDN & NFV Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey (Mar.)
- Macrocell Mobile Backhaul Equipment & Services Market Share & Forecasts (April)
- Analyst Note: SDN Will Not Cause a Drop in Capex... Yet
INFONETICS WEBINARS
Visit https://www.infonetics.com/infonetics-events to register for upcoming webinars, view recent webinars on demand, or learn about sponsoring a webinar.
- Extending Copper Access Networks with Vectoring and G.Fast: (Mar. 11: Attend)
- SDN and NFV: The Nitty Gritty (Mar. 18: Attend)
- Managing and Monetizing APIs (Apr. 3: Attend)
- NFV: An Easier Initial Target Than SDN? (June 19: Sponsor)
- Making Your Network Run Hotter With SDN (Aug. 7: Sponsor)
- Multi-Vendor Service Provisioning for NFV (View on demand)
- Cashing in on Carrier Wi-Fi (View on-demand)
- Adding Value to the Network with Integrated Policy and Charging (View on-demand)
- 100G in the Metro: When and Where It Will Be Economical (View on-demand)
TO BUY REPORTS, CONTACT:
N. America (West), Asia Pacific: Larry Howard, larry@infonetics.com, +1 408-583-3335
N. America (East, Midwest), L. America: Scott Coyne, scott@infonetics.com, +1 408-583-3395
EMEA, India, Singapore: George Stojsavljevic, george@infonetics.com, +44 755-488-1623
Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp
ABOUT INFONETICS
Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete effectively. View Infonetics’ About Us slides at http://bit.ly/QUrbrV.
