Global Mobile Backhaul Equipment Market Will Reach $8 Billion by 2018

According to a newly released report produced by Dell’Oro, the market forecast is that the Mobile Backhaul equipment market will reach $8 billion in four years. This market consists of transport and routers as well as switches.

The Dell’Oro report is entitled, “Mobile Backhaul 5-Year Forecast.” It offers a comprehensive overview of market trends and forecasts. This includes tables covering manufacturers' revenue, backhaul links, and average selling price forecasts for the Mobile Backhaul Transport, and Routers & Switches.  The report also includes tables on worldwide and regional cellular subscribers and cell sites.

One of the predictions from Dell’Oro is that outdoor small cells will account for about 10 percent of backhaul equipment revenue. Revenue from routers and switches will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of five percent. It will comprise 35 percent of total backhaul revenues by 2018. Transmission equipment should be about a two percent CAGR over the next four years.

According to Informa Telecoms & Media, the public access small cell market will be worth $16 billion by 2016. This represents approximately 73 percent of the total small cell market. However, a huge majority of the 92 million units expected to be rolled by 2016 will be indoor and enterprise small cells, with public access small cells accounting for just four percent.

A couple of the key highlights from the report include:

• 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

Jimmy Yu, who is vice president of mobile backhaul market research at Dell'Oro Group, said "Mobile backhaul is a critical contributor to carrier microwave, routing and switching growth over the next five years. 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."