The “WiBACK” wireless backhaul system developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS in Berlin aims to bring lower-cost broadband to remote areas in developing regions.
You might wonder why a wireless service provider would want to buy a “landline services” provider. The key is that C&W Worldwide is a provider of enterprise services, not consumers. C&W Worldwide, in principle, would help Vodafone reduce its mobile backhaul costs, in part by limiting the amount of leased access Vodafone has to buy.
The global portion of C&W Worldwide also would help Vodafone better compete for multinational enterprise customer business.
“At the right price, this makes sense for Vodafone,” said Declan Lonergan, research VP who has studied Vodafone’s options”
Netherlands-based KPN International has selected Swedish vendor Ericsson to upgrade its mobile backhaul for its Belgian and German subsidiaries over the course of the next three years.
Under the terms of the deal, Ericsson will install more than 15,000 “MINI-LINK” transmission node links in the two countries before the end of 2013, with the upgrade being carried out with a view to ensuring that both KPN Group Belgium and Germany’s E-Plus Mobilfunk are able to cope with increasing demand from mobile users for data services, while boosting the efficiency of their respective networks.
Ericsson meanwhile has claimed that the mobile backhaul upgrade will lead to lower costs per bit, as well as allowing for a smooth migration from Time Division Multiplex (TDM) to packet transport, and providing the opportunity to scale microwave up to gigabit capacities step-by-step.