Cable Technology Feature Article
September 18, 2008
T-Mobile Buys Fiber Backhaul Services
By Gary Kim, Contributing Editor
Mobile backhaul has, for several years, been singled out as an opportunity for fiber and wireless providers, and the potential now is being realized. T-Mobile USA, for example, now is buying backhaul capacity from Bright House Networks, FPL FiberNet, IP Networks and Zayo Bandwidth (News - Alert). The reason is not hard to understand: where today most U.S.-based wireless providers rely on T1 connections. But broadband applications to support 3G and 4G connections obviously require bandwidth much higher than that; perhaps an order of magnitude or so.
Where T-Mobile (News - Alert) networks today support throughput in the low hundreds of kilobits per second, the new 3G network will have to support throughput in the low thousands of kilobits per second, easily 10 times more bandwidth than currently is the case.
INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO — the biggest and most comprehensive IP communications event of the year — is going on this week (September 16-18, 2008) in Los Angeles, California! The show features three valuable days of exhibits, conferences, and networking opportunities you can’t afford to miss. Be sure to check out TMCnet.com and blogs from Rich Tehrani, Greg Galitzine, and Tom Keating for news highlights from the show. See you there!
Gary Kim (News - Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Mae Kowalke
