Barely two weeks from the deal’s closing, the system integration of T-Mobile and MetroPCS has already begun, with a system cutover in Las Vegas, J. Braxton Carter, T-Mobile CFO, told the 41st Annual J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on May 15 in Boston.

“We are doing that within two weeks of closing [on the MetroPCS merger]. There were questions about how soon we would be in a position to combine these two businesses. The fact of the matter is it is going to happen very quickly,” Carter said.

Additionally, T-Mobile plans to quickly expand the MetroPCS brand to 15 major metropolitan areas, covering 100 million additional pops, Carter said.

“We are going very quickly. The rollout will be measured in quarters not years,” Carter said. “We will leverage existing backhaul and interconnection facilities. Because we don’t have to build an entirely new network, it allows us in a very short time span to roll out, beginning in the third and four quarters and continuing the expansion into 2014.”

T-Mobile’s capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2013 were $1.1 billion, accelerating the network modernization program, which is on pace to cover 200 million pops with LTE by the end of 2013. In the first quarter 2013, the carrier launched LTE in seven major metropolitan areas and upgraded 16,000 sites with HSPA+ at 1900 MHz.

Neville Ray, T-Mobile CTO, said he was pleased with the pace of network modernization last year and this year, the bulk of which will be complete by the end of 2013.

“Our goal for the year of modernizing the network with HSPA+ in the 1900-MHz band over 170 million pops is in the bag. Our refarmed spectrum is driving growth,” Ray said. “We said we would hit 100 million pops with LTE by midyear [excluding MetroPCS]. We will have done that and more. We will hit 200 million pops of modernized network including LTE, and we will be in position to ease off in 2014.”

T-Mobile is looking to expand its network in 2014–2015 through spectrum it plans to purchase at auctions, which is “a far more cost-effective way of going forward with network expansion,” Ray said.

With all four major U.S. wireless carriers engaged in major network upgrades, Crown experienced a significant amount of activity in the first quarter, logging more than 75 percent of the 2013 leasing activity into its application pipeline.

Application volume by revenue in the first quarter grew at twice the pace of last year, and 60 percent of that number was from new tenants collocating on towers they were not previously on.

“This is a trend we have been anticipating for some time, as some of the carriers are nearing completion of their LTE nationwide build out,” Moreland said. “We have been expecting to see in-fill sites, or densification, as a second wave of LTE network deployment, providing us with a longer runway of expected future growth as the carriers strive to maintain network quality and reliability through cell splitting in the face of exponential growth in mobile technology demand.”

Given the location of 74 percent of Crown’s sites in the top 100 markets, the company expects to benefit from the majority of network densification through new leases. Overall, LTE deployment should be the gift that keeps on giving to the tower industry into the future, Ted Abrams, Abrams Wireless, told AGL Bulletin.

“Working with clients deploying LTE, and those responding to major carrier requests, I see strong indications that LTE deployments are only just beginning. Evidence indicates demand growth for wireless network infrastructure — assets that support and connect small cells and macros – continuing for many years to come,” Abrams said.

For reasons that were not readily apparent, Assembly Whip Chris Holden (D-Dist. 41) withdrew Assembly Bill 162, which mandates local governments in California approve modifications of existing wireless telecommunications facilities that do not substantially change their physical dimensions.

The measure also cut in half the amount of time a municipality has to process a collocation. After 45 days, according to the bill, a collocation application must be denied, or it will be deemed approved.

The bill was introduced late in January and referred several times to the Standing Committee on Local Government. A hearing on the bill was canceled on April 29 and was later was removed from consideration. A spokesperson for Holden said the bill will be reintroduced next year.

Carriers supported the idea of having a shorter, consistent window for cell tower approvals, while the cities called the time frames “unreasonable.”

Carriers also supported the bill’s pre-emption of local governments from considering whether there is a gap in service in collocation hearings, which the cities said was just part of the process of creating a public record.

The bill’s collocation definitions are also more expansive than the collocation guidance provided by the FCC, defining “wireless telecommunications facilities” as towers, utility poles, transmitters, base stations and emergency power systems that are used to provide service.

The bill might have been pulled to give the Supreme Court time to rule on City of Arlington, Texas v. Federal Communications Commission, which is a case brought by the city against the FCC’s Shot Clock.

Because legacy backhaul network infrastructures can no longer support the exponential growth in the industry, the network-neutral system will provide an abundant supply of next-generation fiber available for lease. The end users for these physical-layer services include submarine cable systems, large wireline and wireless carriers and network operators, private enterprises, cooperatives, cable television companies and data-center operators.

Corning will supply its 528-fiber SST-UltraRibbon cable that contains SMF-28e+ and LEAF optical fibers. The optical fiber is optimized for long-haul and metro networks and provides high capacity, broad system flexibility and proven performance.

“Allied Fiber worked closely with Corning to develop a custom-designed 528-fiber ribbon cable optimized for the unique network design we are deploying throughout the United States,” said Jason Cohen, president and chief operating officer, Allied Fiber. “Corning’s telecommunications solutions have been requested by many of our customers and are capable of supporting the newest generation of high-performance opto-electronics equipment.”

Planned future phases of the Allied Fiber network will encircle the United States, with more than 11,500 route miles.

Capacity expansion is a key factor in this network upgrade project, as Latin America continues to experience a growing demand for broadband services. Ceragon’s FibeAir IP-10 and Evolution long-haul solutions will help connect new 3G sites while expanding the capacity of the network’s backbone.

“The expanded order for products and services from a premier operator is further validation of the vision we have for the Latin America region,” said Ira Palti, president and CEO of Ceragon Networks. “Increased backhaul density helps our customers deliver connectivity to tens of millions of users, sometimes in areas with no other options for broadband connectivity. Building on this established relationship, Ceragon continues to deepen its presence in the Southern Cone region of Latin America.”

DragonWave has rebranded the products acquired from Nokia Siemens Networks as “Harmony” products and will continue the support and development of these products, which will also be sold via Nokia Siemens Networks. The strategic agreement envisions Nokia Siemens Networks continuing to maintain the commercial interface to mobile customers and Harmony remains a fundamental part of its mobile broadband proposition.

“The new arrangements are intended to streamline our operations and customer outreach strategy to better serve Nokia Siemens Networks and its customers,” said DragonWave president and CEO Peter Allen. “We look forward to continuing to pursue market opportunities together with Nokia Siemens Networks.”

Marc Rouanne, executive vice president, mobile broadband at Nokia Siemens Networks, said, “We believe that by 2020, mobile networks will need to be ready to deliver one gigabyte of personalized data per user per day profitably and we are committed to offering our customers the best mobile broadband solution possible including the microwave that DragonWave brings to the table.”

The report highlights that mobile data traffic has grown 280 percent annually over the past few years, and is expected to double in the near future. This surging demand for mobile services threatens to cause network congestion and diminished service quality, which increases the chances of customers switching to competitors; therefore, mobile bandwidth has become a precious commodity. To effectively monetize bandwidth, providers need to be able to measure, monitor and manage network equipment quality, thereby driving demand for mobile backhaul equipment.

The demand for microwave-based equipment, mainly for backhaul solutions, is on the rise and this trend will continue. Microwave-based wireless backhaul has been recognized as the most cost-effective solution for delivering higher capacity in the cellular world, so for the emerging bandwidth-hungry LTE market, the benefits of microwave-based backhaul solutions are even higher.

Devices in the BGTx0 product family come in a standard plastic package and replace more than 10 discrete devices used in current system designs with one single chip. The customers’ assembly process is simplified dramatically because they can continue to use a standard SMT assembly flow. The product family also provides a complete radio frequency (RF) front-end for wireless communication in 57-64 GHz, 71-76 GHz or 81-86 GHz millimeter-wave bands. Paired with a baseband/modem, the system solution requires less space, offers improved reliability and lower cost for the critical wireless backhaul links needed in mobile base stations that support LTE/4G networks.

“The V- and E-band microwave frequencies available for LTE/4G backhaul support data rates three times higher than in earlier generation networks,” said Philipp von Schierstaedt, vice president and general manager of business line RF and protection devices at Infineon Technologies. “Correspondingly, they need superior RF performance to meet operating requirements.” said “With this new transceiver family, Infineon leverages its process technology and RF design leadership to help system designers reduce complexity, simplify their production logistics, and ultimately improve quality and field reliability of their backhaul connectivity solutions.”

Based on these products, the SDN-based mobile backhaul solution effectively provides plug-and-play, auto service provisioning, smart traffic steering and auto troubleshooting capabilities for a large number of cell site routers. Early tests have shown promising results with service provisioning efficiency improvements of 85 percent and over 50 percent reduction in network alarms.

As a result of the exponential growth of mobile broadband, current mobile backhaul networks face many challenges, including complex O&M for the massive scale of cell sites, time-consuming service provisioning and inefficient network utilization. The SDN-based mobile backhaul solution is well positioned to address these challenges, and it’s the outcome of a joint innovation project between Huawei and the China Telecom Guangzhou Institute.

The SDN-based mobile backhaul solution is based on existing network hardware while new SDN features can be enabled through software upgrades; both leveraging and protecting existing customer investments by maximizing existing resources. This solution supports star and ring topologies, further protecting investments in existing deployment topologies and offering flexibility for new deployments.

Huawei has been proactively participating in international SDN standardization efforts, including the Open Networking Foundation in collaboration with stakeholders such as operators, equipment manufacturers and research institutions, to promote the application of SDN in end-to-end networks.