The arrival of technologies such as 3G cellular, HSDA and EV-DO has caused mobile operators around the world to examine different ways to strengthen their backhaul in a cost-effective manner. Recently, Global Technology Editor John C. Tanner led a roundtable of leading industry executives sponsored by microwave antenna company Radio Waves that explored the expanding role of microwave technology in 3G infrastructure and examined how 3G backhaul can scale to meet the future demands as the mobile industry moves to 4G and beyond. Excerpts from the roundtable discussion follow:
John Tanner: It seems things are looking good for microwave but yet it's a very challenging market. Is that because it's very competitive or is it because of the price points‾
Dick Carter: I would guess it is a combination of both things. Anybody who's in the industry would realize that the number of competitors that are out here today, compared with the number operating in the marketplace five or six years ago, has increased significantly.
So, of course, with any increase in competition there is a natural progression downward in price. And I guess the other part that comes into that is as the number of operators around the world increases and the services provided by operators increases, there is more demand for the supply of this equipment. So that again brings problems to the manufacturers' side because as demand increases, people's expectation on delivery cycles also shortens, so people want more equipment in less time.
As microwave is a mature technology and practically a commodity business, how do manufacturers differentiate themselves‾
Andy Singer: There are numerous things that can differentiate manufacturers. For instance, delivery is a key issue, and when you're out there and rolling out a network sometimes there can be very tight project schedules.
Dick Carter: This is a discussion I often have with people who are buying microwave radio. In the operator's mind there is the perception about quick delivery - 'I want quick delivery.' When you really speak to people and you really dig down to find out what they really want, most of the time what people really want is not quick delivery. What lets a lot of operators down is the reliability of the delivery on time. It's not the absolute timeframe that people are concerned about.
What is it that the operators look for when selecting microwave equipment‾
Winston Tan: To us, the key issue is reliability and also the new developments in the microwave field, because I feel that microwave is getting to be more of a commitment. I foresee that pricing of microwave will continue to go down, and for you to compete on that, I don't think it'll be very attractive. I believe you might want to continue looking at the new development of microwave technology.
Ong Kok Ching: Basically, when we look at microwave, we look at the whole system, the solution, be it the antenna, the IDU, the ODU, the multiplexers and all that. So we look at everything. And what we naturally specify will be things like the reliability.