The empire is striking back on wireless backhaul. But instead of springing Darth Vader and robotic probes to seek out the rebel forces that have been courting wireless carriers with better backhaul solutions, Verizon Partner Solutions has decided to clean up its act. The wholesale arm of Verizon now is capitalizing on its parent company’s massive fiber-to-the-premises deployment to offer wireless network operators easier access to massive amounts of new bandwidth.

The move comes as demand for wireless backhaul bandwidth is expected to explode, driven by 3G/4G wireless network buildouts and increasing use of wireless network for data and video. At the same time, competition for the market is increasing as well, as CLECs, microwave, cable and other fixed wireless companies eye both the increase in demand and increasing dissatisfaction with the T-1-based solutions that most incumbents have been offering.

In addition to developing a systematic way of using the FiOS network to reach more cellsites with fiber capacity, Verizon Partner Solutions has also revamped the way its services are provisioned and delivered to the wireless market and is promising to offer more cost-effective solutions as well, many of which will be Ethernet-based.

Both parts of its new approach – the fiber network and the better business operations – will be key to its ability to compete in a wireless backhaul market now teeming with other players, said Nadine Manjaro, senior analyst, Wireless Infrastructure, for ABI Research.

“Now they are planning to leverage their FiOS network which reaches millions of homes and passes all the cell sites, which gives them a unique opportunity,” she said. “But they also know they have been difficult to do business with. Delivery has been slow which has left their customers looking for alternative sources. Now they seem to have a solid plan for addressing that.”

That plan was developed after a two-day meeting with wireless carrier customers earlier this year, during which Verizon Partner Solutions learned that its standard operating procedures weren’t service the wireless backhaul market well, said Diane McCarthy, senior vice president of complex services delivery.

“The one thing we also know is that our wireless customers have some unique needs and requirements,” she said. “The operations that I have really have in the past been focused on factory-like operations for efficiency and automation. That has worked well for other customers, but we spent two days asking our wireless customers questions and getting candid feedback about what we need to do differently.”

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