4G Wireless Evolution - Wireless Backhaul Archives

Ceragon got MCel's Backhaul

2010-11-04T19:27:26Z

In a few weeks, I am running a webinar with Ceragon.

I received a press release from our friends at Ceragon, that mentioned the following...Ceragon Networks Signs Multi-Million Dollar Contract with mcel. Largest Mobile Operator in Mozambique to Install 1000 km Microwave Backbone Network

PARAMUS, N.J., Nov. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ceragon Networks (Nasdaq: CRNT), the provider of high-capacity, 4G/LTE-ready wireless backhaul networks, announced a multi-million dollar contract with Mobile Cellular (mcel), the largest mobile telephone operator in Mozambique, reaching all 128 districts of the country. …

You can read the rest of it here.

I asked a few questions and here are the answers from Ceragon.

Question 1) Is this a greenfield for the deployment or are you being added to existing towers?

Answer. Most of the network is upgrading existing infrastructure, some is Greenfield. BTW – our radios enable mcel to use less equipment (and towers) because of better system gain (stonger signal, loger distances etc.)

Question 2) Is there psuedowire involved from Ceragon and if so how do you address timing?

Answer. No pseudowire. Currently the network is geared for TDM only. Upgrade to IP can be done via hybrid approach – hence no need for PWE

Question 3. What demand expectations are there for the 4G/LTE user base? Is this a consumer prepaid market? What are the drivers for the deployment?

Answer. Currently main mobile app is voice. However, this wireless backbone will also deliver traffic from and to the underwater cable that reaches Maputo enabling broadband at large.

Question 4. How long will the roll out take place and when will LTE be delivered?

Answer. The network should be operational early next year (2011). I don’t know what mcel’s next-gen network plans are

Question 5). Will mcel be totally fiber free in its backhaul, or will it be part of the plan to migrate away from Fiber? Do they have issues with weather and other problems that make fiber a poor choice or is strictly a cost model?

Answer mcel has some fiber plants, but they will not dig 1000km of fiber any time soon. There are no major climatic issues

"Delivering reliable mobile service to our customers is extremely important to mcel," said Mr. Arlindo Mondlane, mcel CTO. "We selected Ceragon's products because they are technologically superior, use spectrum efficiently, and are highly reliable. Through careful network planning, we will be able to provide high-quality mobile service to our customers as cost-efficiently and as quickly as possible.

"Ceragon's microwave systems are practical and economical alternatives to fiber optic lines and are highly reliable point-to-point backbone transmission systems," said Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon. "Our solutions are ideal for fast-growing mobile networks such as mcel's, scaling to meet future needs, and offering high reliability to customers in developing countries."

Pole Attachments 101: Even for Wireless we need them

2010-07-28T02:58:40Z

Aug 18th Audio Conference 12 EST 9AM PST

"Pole Attachments" have different meanings each section of the telecommunications, cable, wireless, and broadband industries. Some consider the topic boring and unimportant. But the FCC does not see it that way and neither do the grant winners of hundreds of millions of dollars for NTIA funding to build fiber optic facilities across rural and urban America. These grant winners have two to three year deadlines for spending the funding and completing the projects. All of the projects are dependent on the pole owners to enter into agreements for the broadband grant providers letting them use the poles, to conduct engineering surveys, to perform make-ready work, and then to allow the fiber on the poles. After the work is completed, annual pole attachment fees will determine if the broadband project can make a profit and become sustainable, another requirement of the Recovery Act and NTIA grant rules.

Poorly supported efforts at the FCC have been underway to revise the pole attachment matters since 2005. This year, the FCC spent more than 15 pages in the National Broadband Plan discussing the need to address the pole attachment issues. Then on May 20, 2010, the FCC released a 99 page NOI addressing pole attachment issues in detail: "A National Broadband Plan for Our Future Implementation of Section 224 of the Act." The National Broadband Plan recognized the importance of timely access to poles. The NOI staff sited the complained that the company "has been working since February 2008 to build the network necessary to provide a WAN network for a school district, and is still waiting for the pole owner to complete make ready work. As a result of this delay, the school district has not been able to conduct standardized testing online as it had hoped and planned to do." Now cable companies pay a lower rate that telecommunications companies and CLECs pay a lower rate that ILECs. Broadband only providers are not allowed on the poles but how are cable companies delivering broadband only able to gain access to the poles.

What happens in the case where NTIA grant winners ask for access to 1500 miles of poles.
How will agreements be reached for these large projects?
Will grant winners be required to partner with or become cable companies or CLECs just to get on the poles or receive low annual pole attachment rates?
Will the problem of pole attachment delays or unnecessary make-ready slow the delivery of broadband for the grant winners?

Marty Stern
Marty Stern is a partner in the D.C. office of K&L Gates and co-chair of the firm's Telecom, Media and Technology practice group. He provides strategic and policy advice to telecommunications, information technology and media firms, and assists telecom and broadband providers on all aspects of network build-out and operations. He has served as lead telecom regulatory and deployment counsel in connection with numerous domestic and international undersea and terrestrial fiber-optic cable projects, as well as on permitting issues associated with the siting and deployment of wireless facilities. Marty also handles complex regulatory issues in connection with mergers, acquisitions, financings and restructuring activities of telecom, broadband and media companies, and represents these entities on policy matters before the Administration, Congress, the FCC and state commissions. Marty is the former deputy chief of the Competition Division at the FCC and served as a trial attorney in in the Communications and Finance Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division. He holds a J.D., cum laude from Georgetown University, and a B.A. and M.B.A from the University of Rochester.

Barlow Keener
Barlow Keener is an attorney with Keener Law Group. He specializes in communications law and development for over 15 years and is an authority on wireless and wired matters related to telecommunications, CALEA, femtocells, WiFi mesh networks, and fiber optic networks. He represents telecommunications providers in state and federal regulatory matters. He has served as lead telecom regulatory counsel in connection with numerous RBOC, VoIP, CLEC, conference calling, voicemail, and collocation projects. Barlow delivers guidance to communications providers and systems integrators related to defining telecommunications and non-telecommunications services. He also provides strategic and policy advice to telecommunications, information technology and media firms in the United States, Asia and Europe. He was formerly General Counsel at CSA and a General Attorney at BellSouth Telecommunications. He holds a J.D. from Emory University, a M.A. from North Carolina Central University, and a B.A. from the University of the South

Mike McNally
CEO of Maverick Construction. CEO, President, and founder Michael McNally has a diverse background in the construction and utility business, completing large projects in Boston, Pittsburgh, Indiana, the Caribbean, Russia, Poland and Mexico. Mr. McNally, a graduate of Boston College, has a diverse understanding of the political aspects of completing jobs, and has helped clients navigate through many potential minefields.

Sandy Bendremer
Sandy is Vice President of Galaxy Internet Services a Massachusetts based Internet service provider which has been providing Internet and IT Solutions to the public, private enterprise and government municipalities since 1995. Galaxy's mission is to enable wireless broadband access coupled with intelligent Internet services everywhere through innovative joint partnerships with government municipalities and the private-sector. Galaxy's services include a wide range of Internet connectivity, hosting, wide area networking and professional services. Galaxy operates the border-to-border wireless service in Brookline, Massachusetts, servicing public safety, municipal, commercial, and residential users . Galaxy has also taken a prominent role in the Wi-Fi pilot projects undertaken by the City of Boston and the recently formed non-profit, tasked with building a wireless network for the City.

Bandwidth Update -- Towerstream Holding Strong

2009-09-02T19:06:04Z

Here's another look at the WiMAX-fueled bandwidth we are enjoying here at the 4GWE conference -- thanks to Towerstream. (For clarity's sake Towerstream CEO Jeff Thompson said the 10 Mbps link is not "official" WiMAX but a proprietary Towerstream implementation... to us it's just backhaul and it's working pretty well.)

This link is from the WiMAX to a Wi-Fi access point... lots of folks on the net, very few problems.

Liveblogging -- Femtocell Session

2009-09-02T17:07:27Z

There's an overflow crowd here at the 4GWE session on femtocells, so I'll try some liveblogging to keep you in the flow of the discussion if you're not here in the room with us. Keep refreshing this post, we are adding as it goes along.

What is a femtocell? David Chambers from Amdocs, our session moderator, gives the overview: It is basically a "complete [cellular] base station, shrunk to size."

Chambers says North America is a ripe femto market, since it has poor cellular coverage, good wired broadband, and people with money to spend. Theoretically :-)
David Nowicki, VP of marketing and product management from femto manufacturer Airvana, now speaking. Talking about the femto forum -- industry group promoting femto standards.

Femto Forum -- 43 operators, covering 1.3 billion subscribers; 17 of the top 20 mobile operators playing together.

What does the consumer get out of installing a femto? David says there's an 80-page white paper on the forum web site, woof! We'll read that later. Talking now about a family adding a femto to their house... it costs the operator at least $400 up front to integrate the device in -- but over the life of the customer contract it is worth it because ARPU goes way up. Could double the ARPU.

The family uses more data -- adds big-bucket calling plans -- more services, like TV -- so femtos can be a way to bring more bundles into a subscriber contract. Plus it offloads some data from the service provider network -- more savings.

Who will want femtos? Two-thirds (according to analysis) of customers are wireline customers who want mobility as a complementary service. Makes sense since you need a wired connection (ed. note -- or something like Clearwire's WiMAX) to connect the femto.

Now speaking: Don Troshynski, technical director at Acme Packet, going to talk about back end stuff. Why would you use a SIP-based femtocell? Going beyond R99 phone, get ready for IMS deployments.

SIP also means a need for controls... watching for DOS attacks, latency is a worry... so you need to make sure this is a well-engineered box. Worms and viruses, oh my! (little bit of fun animation on the powerpoint). Overall message: You have to consider the overall security solution when you are deploying these as a service provider.

Now up: Barlow Keener, Keener Law Group, on legal/reg issues of femto deployment.

Says the FCC first mentioned "femtocell" in Feb of 2008. They are "taking notice" but no rulemaking or decisions ... yet!

Macro towers are now surrounded by barb-wire fences... now we are going to put those kind of towers into the hands of consumers, who can hack them, play with them, take them on vacation... "take it to Vermont, because I can't get service there."

Comparing VoIP regulation... net neutrality regulation... "femtocell looks a whole lot like VoIP service." Where will femto links fall when FCC takes a look? (And they WILL look, regulation normally lags the deployments)

Also need to think about 911 calls... triangulation... since you don't know where the antenna is, "much more difficult" to determine where the caller is calling from. GPS chip? Won't get to satellite in a building. "This is going to be an issue."

Billing -- providers don't want to talk about this. Roaming issues created when you move a femto to someone else's licensed territory... minutes that go through femto would be considered roaming... this could get ugly! (ed. note: Will airport security check you for femtos?) Could Internet providers "block" calls coming in through a femto? (ed. note: sounds like the full employment act for those lawyers who don't have net neutrality to argue about anymore)

Now open for audience questions. Any out there in cyberspace? email me at kaps at sidecutreports.com and I will relay.

Moving about -- can you bring your femto with you? Panelists say no, you can move to an area where your provider has spectrum, but not in other places. Apparently people tried this in Asia -- took their femtos with them, made "local" calls on the road. Providers will sniff this out, block it. (ed. note: Let's get ready to rumble!)

Question now about billing... guess from panel is that there may be "overflow" pricing, where if you don't use femto bandwidth you can roll it over. Might carriers bundle fixed service and femto mobile? "Hard to predict" what the billing dynamics might be. Could it cannibalize mobile services? Answer -- service providers are pricing this different ways. Sprint, $10 a month, all the calls you want. In Japan femtos are free -- create value by "recruiting" other family members to services -- or via apps like parental control, etc., specific to the femto. Too early to generalize how femtos/services will be priced.

Acme Packet's Don -- may be worth it to the operator to sacrifice price for benefits.

Keener -- says "it will come back to the lawyers" because of class action suits like the ones against AT&T and Apple about iPhones not performing. RAN engineers say they can't handle all the new data, femtos a way to offload.

Moderator David Chambers throws this one out: Is Wi-Fi (combined with things like Skype) a worthy competitor to femtos? Is that the real 4G competition, and not WiMAX vs. LTE? Acme Packet's Don: not going to replace the convenience of cellular. Keener: Think we are heading toward true convergence -- use Truphone, Skype... voice revenues dropping, the ability to deliver data will count more. That means ARPU will drop.

Airvana Dave: It will be both... all phones support femto, some will support Wi-Fi. 20 percent of handsets now have Wi-Fi... look at iPhone? Allows you to use Wi-Fi for Internet, but no operator (AT&T) services over Wi-Fi. Use both, for two different services. Keener again: OK to use Skype over your data "minutes"? (ed. note: Guessing this may be part of the next net neutrality battleground, don't you?)

Good audience question: Is a femto a better in-building solution than Wi-Fi? Airvana's Dave: That's what it's all about. If you want to support voice and data, do both. Femto primarily so everyone can make calls... Wi-Fi, good way to do Internet access. You could set up a network with only femtos... both voice and data, think if doing it today, still early days and you would do both.

Audience: Is there a femto/Wi-Fi combo? Airvana's Dave -- manufacturers have such products, they have not been offered yet. Three years from now, you'll see mainly an integrated product. Keener "takes his lawyer hat off" and talks about the home gateway -- aka Holy Grail for the Netgears of the world. Music, video downloads, etc., to be stored there... (ed. note we have heard this idea before... but Tivos are still a niche... )

OK, got to sign off to do moderator duties. Thanks for reading!

Thats a lot of Stimulus

2009-08-28T00:28:41Z

Over 2,200 Applications
Over 25 B Requested (4 B has been Allocated)

WASHINGTON- The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's
Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced today that they received almost 2,200
applications requesting nearly $28 billion in funding for proposed broadband
projects reaching all 50 U.S. states and territories and the District of Columbia.
This is the first round of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding
aimed at expanding broadband access and adoption to help bridge the
technological divide and create jobs building Internet infrastructure, with $4
billion available through loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations.

The Recovery Act provided a total of $7.2 billion to NTIA and RUS to expand
access to and adoption of broadband services. Of that funding, NTIA will utilize
$4.7 billion to deploy broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas
in the United States, expand public computer center capacity, and encourage
sustainable adoption of broadband service. RUS will invest $2.5 billion to
facilitate broadband deployment in primarily rural communities. Approximately
$2.4 billion from RUS and up to $1.6 billion from NTIA is available in this first
grant round.

Applications came in from a diverse range of parties including state, local, and
tribal governments; nonprofits; industry; anchor institutions, such as libraries,
universities, community colleges, and hospitals; public safety organizations; and
other entities in rural, suburban, and urban areas.

"Applicants requested nearly seven times the amount of funding available, which
demonstrates the substantial interest in expanding broadband across the Nation,"
said Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and
Information and Administrator of NTIA. "We will move quickly but carefully to
fund the best projects to bring broadband and jobs to more Americans."

"The overwhelming response we received underscores the extensive interest in
expanding broadband across the country. Rural communities clearly recognize
that broadband can expand their economic opportunities and create jobs," said
Jonathan Adelstein, Administrator, Rural Utilities Service, USDA. "The Obama
Administration's goal is to target funds to serve areas of greatest need. The big
demand for loans as well as grants demonstrates that we can leverage private
investment with USDA's $2.5 billion to deliver the greatest bang for the
taxpayers' buck."

A preliminary analysis of applicant-reported data shows that NTIA and RUS
received requests for grants and loans totaling nearly $28 billion. When including
about $10.5 billion in matching funds committed by the applicants, there are over
$38 billion in proposed broadband projects.

The applications break down as follows:

Infrastructure

• More than 260 applications were filed solely with NTIA's Broadband
Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), requesting over $5.4 billion
in grants to fund broadband infrastructure projects in unserved and
underserved areas.

• More than 400 applications were filed solely with RUS's Broadband
Initiatives Program (BIP), requesting nearly $5 billion in grants and loans
for broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas.

• More than 830 applications were filed with both NTIA's BTOP and
RUS's BIP, requesting nearly $12.8 billion in infrastructure funding.
(Applicants for infrastructure projects in rural areas must apply to BIP but
were given the opportunity to jointly apply to BTOP in case RUS declines
to fund their application.)

Sustainable Broadband Adoption

• More than 320 applications were filed with NTIA requesting nearly $2.5
billion in grants from BTOP for projects that promote sustainable demand
for broadband services, including projects to provide broadband education,
awareness, training, access, equipment or support, particularly among
vulnerable population groups where broadband technology has
traditionally been underutilized. (The Recovery Act directs NTIA to make
at least $250 million available for programs that encourage sustainable
adoption of broadband services, of which up to $150 million is allocated
in this first round of grants.)

Public Computer Centers

• More than 360 applications were filed with NTIA requesting more than
$1.9 billion in grants from BTOP for public computer center projects,
which will expand access to broadband service and enhance broadband
capacity at public libraries, community colleges, and other institutions that
provide the benefits of broadband to the general public or specific
vulnerable populations. (The Recovery Act directs NTIA to make at least
$200 million available for expanding public computer center capacity, of
which up to $50 million is allocated in this first round of grants.)

In the coming weeks, NTIA and RUS will post online a searchable database
containing summaries of all applications received. The dollar figures cited today
represent applicants' self-reported totals from proposals submitted before the
August 20, 2009, deadline at 5 p.m. ET. These results are preliminary estimates,
however, and may change as the applications are reviewed for errors, omissions,
and duplications.

Will 'Portability' Lure Businesses to WiMAX?

2009-08-26T04:46:16Z

When WiMAX providers talk about the technology's attributes, cellular-like mobility is usually near the top of the list. But for many business users WiMAX's simple portability -- the ability to pick up and move your broadband connection -- may prove to be a more powerful economic and operational lure, the kind of money-saving, hassle-free attribute that gets CIOs interested and gets POs signed.

The power and potential attractiveness of WiMAX's simple portability was one of the surprising themes we picked up on during the reporting and writing of our latest Sidecut Report, titled the Sidecut Reports WiMAX Business Deployment Guide. Available now as a free download, the report also includes a basic primer on what WiMAX is, and where and how businesses can connect to WiMAX services, and some broadband pricing comparisons.

And while there are potentially many customers who might eventually take advantage of WiMAX's ability to support real broadband connectivity while in motion -- we are thinking here of commuters in Chicago and New York, markets that are already on the Clearwire launch schedule -- for right now it's easy to say that most business computing is done by bodies at rest; by people sitting at a desk, a cubicle, a coffeehouse table or somewhere else well lighted and generally stable. Right now those workers' broadband needs are either met by a wired network, or by a Wi-Fi access point tied into a backbone via either DSL or cable modem.

The twist WiMAX adds into this work equation is the ability to unplug that beefy backhaul and move it across the cube, across the hall, across campus or across town -- delivering workspace flexibility not just for individuals, but for entire workgroups who could theoretically be supported by WiMAX services' rather robust plans. Throw in one of the new portable hotspot routers being offered by both Clearwire and Sprint (Andy calls 'em PocketSpots) and all of a sudden business broadband decisions are no longer tethered to a wire coming out of a wall -- or to any wall at all.

Our report provides other details on why businesses might want to take a look at WiMAX, if it is available in their markets -- but it is our guess that simple portability, instead of way-cool mobility, may be a more powerful business-user lure right now, at least until those promised next-generation mobile devices appear in the wild.

Peter MacKinnon, President of LG Nortel Gives us Perspective

2009-07-13T05:03:00Z

I read an recent press release from LG Nortel and thought we might gain some understand by interviewing Peter MacKinnon, the Chairman of LG Nortel Ltd, and President of the LG Nortel BU.

[CF] Is the LG Nortel relationship an entity that exists regardless of the turmoil at the parent company?

[PM] LG-Nortel is a profitable, standalone business and has not filed for creditor protection. The company is solvent with a strong balance sheet, >1000 employee base, enjoys a leading position in building customer network solutions in Korea (across several product portfolios) and has generated positive cash flow from operations since its inception in November of 2005.

Given Nortel's filing for creditor protection and the ongoing business environment, Nortel has decided its intention to seek a buyer for its majority stake (50% + 1 share) in LG-Nortel, the company's Korean joint venture with LG Electronics.

Nortel has determined this is the best path forward to secure a sound future for LG-Nortel. Nortel and LGE are fully committed to LG-Nortel's future success and are committed to concluding this transition swiftly and efficiently for the benefit of LG-Nortel and its customers. Throughout the process, the LG-Nortel management team will ensure that business operations continue as usual.

[CF] Nortel's strength is in optics and LG has a history in electronics, what should we expect?

[PM] This is a good question! Nortel's long standing pedigree in Optics has been well recognized in the industry for many innovations specifically on optics and digital signal processing (DSP) to increase line rates and reduce overall network cost. The LG-Nortel & Nortel teams are working together to marry the power of optics, with the simplicity of ubiquitous ethernet and commercialized electronics to create a next generation fiber access system that enables an end user experience that is beyond the current fiber access technologies based on TDM asynchronous passive optical networking solutions available today.

Current fiber access technologies, such as TDM based PON solutions are very complex, do not scale, are limited in service offering, are not foundational in addressing business services and backhaul infrastructures and are OPEX challenged over the long run. Our WDM-PON solution will break through a number of these barriers that relate to above cost effectively and with simplicity, and should provide the foundational solution for the next 20-30 years for residential, business and backhaul applications.

[CF] You have a history with WiMAX, do you see a parallels in requirements for high speed data between the fiber and wireless experiences?

[PM] Absolutely! You can find parallels between the two technologies, they are complementary and have different value propositions?

Both fiber and WiMAX are addressing the need for high speed connectivity either combination of mobility and landlines. Without going into too many details, WiMAX has provided significant breakthroughs in high speed data over OFDMA based wireless networks, with major breakthroughs in technology specifically MIMO signal processing.

Whereas, traditional Fiber based systems use landline optical technologies, the most popular being Gigabit PON/Gigabit Ethernet PON support point to multipoint end user connectivity, however, the relationship is similar to WiMAX, the bandwidth served is inversely proportional to the number of subscribers in a geographical serving area. In addition, these technologies do not perform well for a ubiquitous fiber infrastructure that delivers business services and backhaul solutions. LG-Nortel is currently marketing a solution for global operators to leverage all the benefits of Point to Point connectivity with the added value of point to multipoint fiber topologies similar to existing TDM PON offering.

[CF] What places in the world do you think we should focus on to see the trends?

[PM] In regards to the fiber access solutions, I would take a look at a number of places in the world that the operator experience is dictating the technology choices. More specifically Korea & Continental Europe, would be where I would focus to determine the next impending trend. Korea is the highest broadband penetration market in the world, and is aggressively deploying new 3G / 3.5 G services. Continental Europe, from a fiber access perspective, is divided into two distinct technology "camps", where the south (ie. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany) are exploring TDM PON solutions, whereas the Nordics states, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, have made statements to the effect that TDM PON architectures are not acceptable for their networks. Their solution of choice is primarily a Point to Point architecture. There are other remaining Tier 1 / PTT operators who are studying various techologies, and will follow the mainstream deployments when they occur.

Lastly, innovation, will dictate the path that operators may follow in the near future, specifically as new technologies that have the promise of longer term sustainability will end up being the winner in deployments.

[CF] In your career what changes were you least expecting?

[PM] Interesting question ... I never thought that my family & I would stay abroad for 7 yrs with assignments in the UK, France and Singapore (original assignment was 2 years in the UK!). I would also say that the LG-Nortel experience has been a major highlight in my career, and I've really enjoyed working with this world-class team.

Wireless Backhaul LTE - Lots of Transport Equipment

2009-06-10T18:16:41Z

Susan Campbell in her discussion of LTE brought up some of the realities we are facing as Verizon leads the pack of deployers. The cell sites are probably going to increase as the deployment will show the realities of IP service delivery on a wireless network.

Some friend are reversing the trend in wireless backhaul. It use to be that 80% of the transport was radio and 20% fiber, These days the LTE switch is to be fiber and particularly Metropolitan Area Ethernet. So as we move forward this trend is promising adequate bandwidth at the core.

But the base stations are expanding to accomdate the traffic and the concerns about MIMO as the access.

Its these changes we are looking to highlight with the Wireless Backhaul awards . My expectation is that we are running down a similar path to when Fiber gained the power of DWDM. I have a friend who claims that the collapse of the telecom industry at the beginning of this century was a result of the pricing models being eroded by the excess capacity of bandwidth.

So the realities of service as learned in the implementing and testing of the wireless backhaul network is important bellweather for us to look at right now.