The Bell companies used to be the kings (or dictators, depending on your point of view) of the wireless backhaul market. Wireless operators need high-bandwidth lines to transport call traffic from cell sites, and T-1s, for many years provided only by ILECs, fit the bill. But, that bill was pretty high, as backhaul costs came to represent as much as 30% of some wireless carriers' operational costs.
That helped fuel the rise of alternative T-1 providers, and the recent emergence and likely future explosive growth of the mobile broadband market has fueled more expansion in the backhaul provider sector. More recently, it's been not just ILECs and alternative T-1 sellers, but Ethernet carriers, fiber vendors, fixed-wireless firms, cable TV companies and even the occasional satellite service provider stalking the market. Now, Verizon Partner Solutions is re-invigorating its backhaul business by leveraging its increasingly broad fiber facilities, as well as adjusting to meet demands for lower cost and higher efficiency. The backhaul market is still the ILECs' to own if they can prove they want it bad enough.
For more:
- see this story in Telephony
Related articles:
- The backhaul market is reportedly surging toward $15 billion