Despite the preponderance of unlit fiber, the reality is that often glass isn't located anywhere close to areas where network capacity is required. So despite pronouncements of its death over the last few years, microwave is enjoying a revival. One of the more interesting areas for the wireless technology's new life is among independents in areas hard hit by natural disasters or those expanding their wireless turf, said Bruce Blain, vice president of NEC's radio communications systems division.

“Microwave certainly isn't going away,” he said. “There's a range of applications. We sell a lot for cellular backhaul applications. There are wireless carriers that build 1 by N networks. Three DS-3s is very popular for that. We also see T-1 requirements for single cell sites going up.”

What's more, the cost of providing capacity has dropped so much on the wireline side of the market that it's impacting wireless, he added.

“Carriers used to look at something like $9600 per year for four T-1s,” Blain said. “Over time, the model has changed so much that they now have to have 16 T-1s per month. As you expand the capacity of a radio, there's the incremental cost of adding a fixed DS-3, but your tower leasing costs stay the same so it's making more economic sense.”