NEC is the highest-rated
microwave equipment vendor for customer
service and support among operators, according to Infonetics
Research.
Ericsson
joint-leads with NEC in financial
stability ratings, and ties Nokia
Siemens Networks for the second-highest ratings for technology (NEC is first).
Huawei gets top marks from
operators for pricing
and price-to-performance
ratio, reinforcing the perception that it is undercutting the pricing
structure of its competitors.
Alcatel-Lucent
ties for the third-highest rankings from operators for a number of criteria,
including product roadmap and security.
According to the survey, there will be an increasingly
significant shift from dual Ethernet/TDM microwave to Ethernet-only microwave
backhaul, driven by the exponential increases in data traffic caused by
HSPA/HSPA+ and later, LTE adoption.
Microwave will continue to be the dominant mobile
backhaul solution even as fiber to the cell site is more widely deployed, as
fiber will not always be available or cost-effective.
Though mid-tier (13-24 GHz) and low-tier (1-12 GHz)
spectrum bands currently dominate microwave deployments, use of high-tier
spectrum (24-42 GHz), unlicensed spectrum, and millimeter wave spectrum will
notably increase as operators seek to leverage less exploited spectrum to
address backhaul needs.
The microwave equipment market generated $5.6 billion
globally for manufacturers in 2010. The market is fiercely contested by major integrated
vendors and small-to-mid scale specialist vendors.
“The bottom-line result of our latest microwave
strategies survey is that, for operators, customer support is the key way to
differentiate from the pack. Technology is important, and of course vendors
love to talk about new product features. But this does not always align with
the way in which their customers and the market in general assess vendors. To
operators, a vendor that can build a lasting and productive relationship with
them, based on strong service and support, will most likely win the purchase
decision,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave at
Infonetics Research.
The report is based on interviews with purchase-decision
makers at 21 service providers that have deployed microwave equipment for
access, backhaul, or transport applications. The carriers are from EMEA
(Europe, Middle East, Africa), North America, and Asia Pacific, and together represent
a significant 23 percent of worldwide telecom revenue and 20 percent of telecom
capex.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
