CHICAGO—Backhaul is a big theme at 4G World in Chicago this week, and Qwest Communications today launched a new backhaul solution for wireless service providers.
Qwest Wholesale’s Mobile Ethernet Backhaul service can be tailored to a wireless service provider’s requirements and is geared to meet operators’ needs for current 3G as well as their needs for LTE and WiMAX. The company started developing the service with Tier 1 operators in mind but quickly realized it can be scaled for Tier 2s and 3s as well, according to Ted Wietecha, corporate communications manager at Qwest.
Qwest already has signed deals in place and continues to talk with large and small service providers alike, although Wietecha declined to reveal any names.
The solution leverages Qwest’s ongoing fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) deployment and provides a migration path from traditional SONET services to Ethernet. Qwest says customers can be assured they only pay for the bandwidth they need.
It’s available in Qwest’s 14-state local service territory and reaches most major metropolitan areas in Qwest’s territory.