Microwave will represent about 60 percent of the backhaul in 2016, Juniper Research predicts. Microwave backhaul will be driven by capacity needs in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent and the rest of the Asia Pacific region.
By 2016, operator investments in the Far East and China will reach $233 billion, driven by fiber backhaul deployments.
In North America, Juniper predicts that optical fiber will overtake copper as the most widely used access technology.
Microwave’s share of mobile backhaul capacity in the Indian Subcontinent is set to reach almost 87 percent by 2016.
But backhaul capacity will not the only key concern mobile executives will be facing between now and 2016. Juniper Research also forecasts that mobile service providers face potential capital investment and operating costs that actually exceed revenues by about 2014, according to Juniper Research.
The problem is that profit margins are running between 15 percent and 20 percent, which means many service providers are at about break even.
By 2015, costs will exceed revenues slightly, and fall below capital and operating expense by about 2016. Mobile backhaul