LONDON, UK: Global microwave equipment market is expected to more than double between 2008 and 2013, from $4.9 billion to $10.7 billion.

This is according to market research firm Infonetics Research's second quarter (2Q09) Microwave Equipment market size, market share, and forecast report. The report tracks TDM microwave equipment and Ethernet and dual Ethernet/TDM microwave equipment split by backhaul, transport, and access.

Ericsson and NEC are neck and neck in the lead positions for overall microwave equipment revenue in 2Q09, both with 22 percent revenue share, and significantly ahead of the chasing pack.

Richard Webb, directing analyst, WiMAX, microwave, and mobile devices, Infonetics Research, said: “The recession is having only a marginal impact on the microwave equipment market, which, overall, continues to post healthy gains every quarter."

The microwave equipment market continues to be driven by mobile backhaul spending, with demand rapidly growing as the mobile broadband boom accelerates traffic growth, driving operators to upgrade their backhaul provision from cell site to the core network

"We continue to see the market shift from TDM-only equipment to Ethernet-capable gear, driven by increasing bandwidth needs. The bulk of microwave backhaul equipment is dual TDM/Ethernet, enabling mobile operators to continue TDM support for voice traffic, whilst leveraging the higher capacity capabilities of Ethernet to manage the exponential growth in data traffic," he notes.

Huawei saw the most improvement in market share in 2Q09, with increased microwave revenue driven by deployment of 3G networks in China