CALIFORNIA, USA: Worldwide microwave transmission equipment revenues grew nine percent in the fourth quarter 2009, with the packet microwave revenues growing 40 percent during the same period.

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This is according to Dell’Oro Group's, a networking and telecommunications industry analyst firm, report on  microwave transmission market. The new report tracks TDM, packet, and hybrid microwave equipment used primarily in mobile backhaul.

Jimmy Yu, director, Microwave Transmission research, Dell’Oro Group, said: “Despite being the smallest segment of the market, packet microwave grew the fastest during 2009, as wireless service providers continued to gain comfort in a packet-only architecture."

"Although North America is the smallest overall market for microwave equipment, it was in fact, the largest region for packet microwave equipment deployments in the quarter. This is due to the demands placed by Clearwire’s rapid deployment of 4G WiMAX service using microwave for cell site backhaul,” Yu added.

The report indicates that the top three packet microwave vendors during the fourth quarter were Dragonwave (37 percent), Alcatel-Lucent (30 percent), and Bridgewave (nine percent).