FiberTower, a relatively new company having its coming out party this week at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association's Wireless 2005 trade show, arrives on the scene with the belief that better backhaul comes through dedication to the task.

Cell site backhaul is traditionally one of the highest network costs many wireless carriers face, as well as a chief source of cell site outages, yet most of those carriers still outsource backhaul to local exchange carriers (LECs), companies for which it is a secondary line of business.

FiberTower aims to change the game by treating backhaul traffic as “mission-critical” said Harpinder Madan, co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development for the San Francisco company. “Backhaul is a top cost that carriers have. Also, about 50% to 80% of cell site outages are attributable to backhaul problems, so that's a big deal to the carriers,” he said. “Many LECs also don't dispatch repair teams after hours.”

FiberTower is backed financially by three major tower firms — American Tower, Crown Castle and SpectraSite, among other investors. Madan said investors have been guarded about touting FiberTower's plans too loudly in the direction of Wall Street, but despite its very low profile since its 2000 launch, the company has won contracts with three top wireless carriers.

The basis of its scheme is a dedicated backhaul network that uses a hub-and-spoke architecture of digital microwave radios connected to local fiber exchange points. It's an elegant alternative to the copper T-1 backhaul services that many wireless carriers purchase from LECs, something that isn't lost on the major cell site tower companies that work with these carriers.

“When I was with Vanguard Cellular, the backhaul services we had weren't sufficient,” said Tim Biltz, chief operating officer of SpectraSite and former chief operating officer of rural carrier Vanguard. “About 99.9% of the backhaul we leased was from the local LEC, but they didn't have the capabilities we needed.” He added that Spectra-Site's investment in FiberTower “makes our sites a more viable place to be co-located upon for new business. The benefits they bring are service quality and time of provisioning.”

The backhaul market is growing rapidly, and the evolution of wireless data and content applications requires more backhaul capacity at cell sites. Madan said T-1 services typically take four to 12 weeks to set up and often include complex bills. “Backhaul is probably not even 5% of the aggregate revenue for LECs, yet they support 95% of the backhauled site today,” he said. “We approached the tower companies because they wanted to help their customers with the problems and expenses of backhaul.”