Nextlink Taps Ericsson for Wireless Backhaul Gear
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Will use licensed frequencies, microwave to carry heavy data traffic loads
Mon. December 10, 2007
Increased consumer demand for high-bandwidth mobile applications is placing a strain on both the cost and capability of existing wireless backhaul solutions. Nextlink Wireless will use Ericsson's MINI-LINK traffic node microwave transmission platform and its own licensed 28 GHz spectrum to offer wireless backhaul bandwidth from 25 to 155 Mbps, saving both the expense of building infrastructure to the cell towers and increasing the bandwidth capabilities, the company said.
"Cell sites are spread out across large markets, many of them in suburbs and the only access to those sites is copper which has limited bandwidth capabilities and it's expensive since there's typically only one carrier," said Bruce Wagner, vice president of engineering and operations at Nextlink. "High capacity microwave carried over our licensed spectrum provides much more capacity for future growth and it's at a better (cost) rate than traditional ILEC prices."
Nextlink chose Ericsson's technology and support services including installation, integration and hardware support to provide the gear for an unnamed number of the 75 major metro areas the wireless provider covers.
"You can scale this equipment without expensive truck rolls and you can mix-and-match Ethernet or traditional T1s across the entire bandwidth," Wagner said.
Ericsson, he added, was "very willing to make these radios in our licensed 28 GHz spectrum quickly. They have a really excellent solution in terms of multipoint and in terms of point- to-point in one package. It saves on real estate costs but you have the advantages of point-to-point so that each cell site can scale from 25 megabits up to 155 megabits."
He expects the bandwidth to be consumed faster than a Thanksgiving turkey when the cousins are over.
"More and more people are using wireless to download video, download audio and it's just becoming more data-intensive," he said. "The prediction is that carriers are going to need, on a per-site basis, 50 megabits (or) 100 megabits. We expect the full capacity of these radios will be used up over the next few years."
