North America is Ripe for New Broadband Backhaul Facilities

North America appears to be ripe for new high-capacity backhaul from mobile tower sites to points of presence.

The reason? Mobile broadband is not matched by backhaul broadband. Most tower links use T1 connections running at 1.544 Mbps.

That clearly is not good enough for mass adoption of mobile broadband services. Internet service providers located in rural areas have additional problems, though. Quite often, regional connections between local points of presence and the nearest Internet PoPs also use T1 connections.

If you wonder why "middle mile" projects were so prominent in the first wave of broadband stimulus awards, that's why.