Where’s Cable in the Backhaul?

CEN Feature (Apr 6 2010) Cable / MSO

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   By Jim Barthold
   

   I recently had a somewhat surprising conversation with a
   wireless provider who popped a mythical bubble that had been forming in my head
   about cable, Carrier Ethernet and wireless backhaul.

   “We priced the cable companies and they’re always way too
   expensive, twice as much as the LECs,” the operator said. “You talk to them and
   they get you all excited and then at the end you’re bummed because they don’t
   deliver on what they promise.”

   He was talking about using Carrier Ethernet for the mobile
   backhaul. It should be elementary for the smallest cable operator to deliver
   this. Even the wireless provider, who is not affiliated with any of the big
   LECs, incidentally, agreed that cable operators “really are in an environment
   where they should make a killing. But they don’t.”

   “Fiber is the way to go. Carrier Ethernet technology will
   help and as these companies deploy fiber they’re ready for it,” the wireless
   exec said.

   Since most cable plant’s fiber runs so close to cellular
   infrastructure that they’re kissing cousins, it’s either a mistake on the part
   of the carrier to think that cable companies don’t want to play in this sandbox—and
   when was a wireless operator ever wrong?—or a mistake on the part of cable to
   give the impression that it’s playing hard to get. Either way, finding the
   truth is a coin toss that keeps coming down on the edge.

   What’s not a coin toss is the opportunity that backhaul
   presents for the first provider to come in with a reasonably priced and bandwidth
   efficient Carrier Ethernet offering. That opportunity was laid out in an
   Infonetics Research report that stated most operators using microwave are
   planning to use new dual radio products that use TDM and packet before adding,
   tellingly, “35 percent plan to use packet-only microwave products which could
   equate to those going to a single, all IP Carrier Ethernet backhaul.”

   Kind of like what cable could bring to the space … if it
   wanted.

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