Dell’Oro Group predicts that revenues from the sale of 5G mobile backhaul transport equipment will hit $3 billion by 2024. In its newly released Microwave Transmission & Mobile Backhaul 5-Year Forecast Report, the market research firm predicts that optical communications will see a significant share of the market, particularly in the early part of the five-year forecast period.
“We anticipate the mobile backhaul transport market to return to a period of growth as operators roll out 5G,” explained Jimmy Yu, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “Hence, we are predicting that demand for backhaul equipment will grow at an average annual rate of 4% for the next four years, surpassing $5 billion annually.
“We suspect this demand will mostly further the sales of fiber backhaul equipment initially, but in the long term, there will be a growing share of new deployments using wireless backhaul,” Yu added.
Dell’Oro predicts that 5G requirements will account for more than half of the money spent on mobile backhaul transport equipment by 2024. More than 35% of microwave transmission sales by revenue will go to 5G mobile networks by that year as well. The market research firm states in the report that its analysts expect strong adoption of mobile fronthaul gear during the forecast period as well.
The Microwave Transmission & Mobile Backhaul 5-Year Forecast Report covers market prospects via tables enumerating manufacturers’ revenue, radio transceivers, and average selling prices. The report also tracks mobile backhaul by cell type (macro and small cell) and technology (wireless and fiber/copper). The microwave transmission tables forecast point-to-point TDM, packet, and hybrid microwave applications as well as full indoor and full outdoor unit configurations.