Mobile Backhaul Equipment Market to Reach $8 Billion by 2018:

The Mobile Backhaul equipment market, consisting of Transport and Routers & Switches, is forecast by Dell'Oro Group to reach $8 billion by 2018.

"Mobile backhaul is a critical contributor to carrier microwave, routing and switching growth over the next five years," said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Mobile Backhaul Market Research at Dell'Oro Group. "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," added Mr. Yu.

The report predicts that 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.