The Mobile Backhaul equipment market, consisting of Transport and Routers & Switches, is forecast to reach $8 billion by 2018, according to a new report by Dell’Oro Group.
Some highlights:
- Routers & Switches for mobile backhaul are projected to grow at a five percent compounded annual growth rate and to comprise nearly 35 percent of total mobile backhaul market revenue by 2018. The primary growth driver will be the shift to a packet-based backhaul network as operators roll out LTE and LTE-advanced.
- The Transport portion of mobile backhaul is forecast to grow at a two percent compounded annual growth rate. The primary growth driver for Transport will be the addition of new macro and small cell sites, along with the upgrade of any older low-capacity backhaul systems.
“Mobile backhaul is a critical contributor to carrier microwave, routing and switching growth over the next five years,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Mobile Backhaul Market Research at Dell’Oro Group. “We anticipate the pace of cell site deployments will gradually increase over this period as operators expand their LTE footprint and begin to roll out small cells. We also expect outdoor small cell backhaul to drive at least 10 percent of mobile backhaul revenue by 2018,” added Mr. Yu.
