In a new study, ABI Research projects that cable operators worldwide will generate more than $1 billion through the sale of backhaul connections to wireless phone carriers by 2011, way up from just $57.6 million this year.

The study sees MSOs increasingly using their HFC networks to link cellular base stations to carriers' local wireline phone networks. ABI also predicts that cable operators will increasingly backhaul their own cellular traffic as they plunge into the wireless market over the next few years.

Although the cable guys are mainly lining up with Sprint Nextel Corp. to enter the mobile phone market right now, the study says that could change as they begin to develop their own wireless offerings and build traffic.

-- Alan Breznick, Site Editor, Cable Digital News