­Globally, the macrocell mobile backhaul equipment market is forecast by Infonetics to grow to $9.7 billion by 2016, while 94% of all macrocell mobile backhaul equipment spending is on IP/Ethernet gear, with 54% of this on packet-capable microwave.

"Steady, albeit slow, growth is in store for the macrocell mobile backhaul equipment market," notes Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research.

"While Verizon Wireless and AT&T are winding down their first big wave of LTE deployments and their spending is slowing, this is a large market and there's still room for growth. We're expecting a cumulative $43.6 billion to be spent on macrocell mobile backhaul equipment over the 5 years from 2012 to 2016, as operators outside of North America buy up microwave gear to support rising capacity requirements."

"Well over half of all spending in the mobile backhaul market is on microwave equipment," adds Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and mobile offload at Infonetics.

Infonetics expects Ethernet mobile backhaul router revenue to peak in 2015, as the buildout of macrocell mobile backhaul subsides and the focus shifts to small cells.