Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent Take Top Honors in Competitive Assessment

Who is the best at the very important, but unseen job of linking end-user traffic between cell towers and the core network? According to ABI Research’s latest mobile backhaul competitive assessment, Ericsson is the leading “microwave backhaul” vendor, followed by NEC and Ceragon. Alcatel-Lucent is the leading Carrier Ethernet vendor, followed by Tellabs and Cisco.

For the innovation criteria of the vendor matrix, diverse portfolios and superior roadmaps drove the top scores. In microwave mobile backhaul, Ericsson, NEC and Ceragon were ranked the best based on their portfolios, which covered a full spectrum of applications including outdoor, all-IP, hybrid, TDM and short-haul with the flexibility to scale for multiple scenarios.

Implementation rankings were driven by leading market shares and geographical reach. Ericsson was the market leader of its segment with an estimated 2011 share of 21.5%, closely followed by NEC with 20.2%, and Huawei with 19.5%. The companies included in this competitive assessment are Ericsson, NEC, Ceragon, Alcatel-Lucent, DragonWave, Aviat, Huawei, and ZTE.

“Although Ericsson is number one in microwave backhaul, we believe that NEC, our number two choice, is rapidly growing to challenge Ericsson with a growing backhaul portfolio and revenue stream,” says Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research.

For innovation in the Carrier Ethernet space, Alcatel-Lucent, Tellabs and Huawei ranked first, second and third, respectively, due to their backhaul network strategies, ranging from hybrid data offload to all IP-RAN, and their supporting multiple backhaul alternatives including Ethernet, IP/MPLS, packet optical, packet microwave, digital subscriber line (DSL), and gigabit passive optical network (GPON) with full Ethernet, ATM, and TDM pseudowire support.

For implementation in the Carrier Ethernet segment, Alcatel-Lucent had an estimated 23.4% share in 2011, followed by Tellabs at 19.6%, and Cisco at 18.1%. Other companies in this assessment include Huawei, RAD, Adtran, Juniper, Ericsson, Ciena, and Overture.

“Alcatel-Lucent’s flexible portfolio supporting multiple and diverse backhaul network strategies was the key to the company’s high score for Carrier Ethernet,” says Marshall.