According to Infonetics Research, the global outdoor small cell backhaul equipment market is expected increase from $39 million in 2012 to $6 billion by 2017. The number of outdoor small cell backhaul connections will grow from 7,000 in 2012 to 850,000 in 2017.
The growth in the global outdoor small cell backhaul equipment market will be driven by the encouraging uptake of unlicensed millimeter wave technology. Globally, North America leads the deployment of outdoor small cell backhaul technologies. Currently, players such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Clearwire and Comcast are planning and conducting field trials for deploying outdoor small cell backhaul technologies.
Globally, the outdoor small cell backhaul market is being led by Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco. The research firm points out that the two main applications for outdoor small cell backhaul are adding capacity to extend telecom services in urban areas and to provide telecom coverage in uncovered rural areas.
