Level 3 Communications is already a key provider of fiber-based backhaul capacity to wireless carriers, but it has been well-documented how expensive fiber can be. Yet, as 3G becomes a more common reality and demand for bandwidth surges, wireless carriers need more capacity and are driving their backhaul providers to come up with new ways of delivering that capacity as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. At the CTIA's Wireless 2008 convention, Level 3 said it is now using a hybrid approach to backhaul in which fiber is used initially from switching centers to nearby cell sites, but microwave is employed to reach outlying cell sites.
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