Clearwire Gets a New Backhaul Buddy

Clearwire reveals deployment of millimeter-wave equipment from startup E-Band

Michelle Donegan, Contributing Editor, Light Reading

July 14, 2010

2 Min Read
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Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) has revealed that it uses wireless backhaul gear from millimeter-wave specialist E-Band Communications Corp. for its bandwidth-hungry WiMax service in the US, which will be a boost for the relatively new wireless radio technology. (See Clearwire Picks E-Band for Backhaul.)

The presence of a newcomer in Clearwire's network could also keep the operator's other microwave backhaul suppliers, DragonWave Inc. (AIM/Toronto: DWI; Nasdaq: DRWI) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), on their toes. (See Rumor: NSN Wants a Piece of Motorola and Clearwire's Backhaul Bet.)

The news follows Light Reading Mobile's report that Clearwire is expected to cut its capital expenditure spending in the second half of this year, and that Dragonwave's Clearwire sales are expected to drop 84 percent in the "August quarter," according to Soleil Securities Group Inc. analyst Michael Genovese. (See Clearwire Cutting Capex in 2H10?)

For the millimeter-wave startup, E-Band, Clearwire is its first major publicly announced customer. A company spokesman says that Clearwire has been using its equipment for more than a year. (See CTIA 2010: Backhaul's Big in Vegas, CTIA 2010: Clearwire, Sprint Push 4G Advantage, and E-Band, Aviat Ink OEM Deal.)

E-Band says that with its Gigabit-Ethernet wireless point-to-point system, Clearwire can build wireless backhaul rings that carry multiple gigabits of traffic. Clearwire has initially deployed the E-Band radios, which operate in the 70GHz to 80GHz frequency range, in Chicago and Philadelphia. (See Clearwire Coverage Tops 50 Million People.)

The attraction of this wireless technology is that it promises to meet the ever-increasing demand for more backhaul capacity by delivering high-capacity links over short distances (typically no more than up to three kilometers). Also, higher frequencies like the 70GHz to 80GHz range is usually lower-cost spectrum, which can be licensed or unlicensed.

The downside, according to a Heavy Reading Mobile Networks Insider report, is that the more-than-1-Gbit/s capacity can only be delivered over short distances and that the throughput can be affected by rainfall. (See The New Wave of Mobile Backhaul.)

Clearwire's interest in millimeter-wave technology shouldn't come as a surprise to Light Reading Mobile readers, however. At our Backhaul Strategies for Mobile Operators conference in October 2008, Clearwire CTO John Saw issued a microwave backhaul manifesto and one of his edicts was that equipment vendors needed to invest more in the development of millimeter-wave technology. (See Clearwire Backhaul Manifesto.)

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author

Michelle Donegan

Contributing Editor, Light Reading

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry on both sides of the Pond for the past twenty years.

Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications, including Communications Week International, Total Telecom, Light Reading, Telecom Titans and more.

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