Microwave backhaul statistics at a glance
Microwave backhaul is still a core part of global transport networks, and the latest figures show why: it is widely deployed, growing in key bands, and still central to 5G backhaul in most live networks.
This article pulls together the most relevant microwave backhaul statistics from the supplied report set and turns them into a practical reading of where the market stands now.
Table of contents
- Fast facts
- Market size and installed base
- Band mix and spectrum shifts
- Regional deployment patterns
- 5G backhaul usage
- Forecasts through 2027
- Availability, rain zones, and engineering tradeoffs
- Regulatory and spectrum outlook
- What the numbers imply
Fast facts
- The global microwave backhaul installed base increased from 10 million transceivers in the 2022 edition to approximately 10.5 million today (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- Microwave backhaul is used in 75% of live 5G networks globally today (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- E-band now represents 8% of the global installed base, up from about 6% in 2022 (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- E-band has surpassed the long-established 38 GHz band in global share (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- The 6-11 GHz bands hold around 25% of the global market share, while the 6-8 GHz subset stands at about 18% (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- In North America, more than 60% of links are in the 6-11 GHz bands (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
The overall picture is not a niche transport layer fading out. It is a broad, mature platform that is still absorbing new demand in higher bands and still anchoring 5G transport worldwide (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025; Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
Market size and installed base
The cleanest headline number is the size of the installed base. The global microwave backhaul installed base rose from 10 million transceivers in the 2022 edition to approximately 10.5 million today (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). That is a large installed footprint for a transport technology that is often discussed as if it were only a fallback option.
A useful way to read that number is to separate maturity from stagnation. Microwave backhaul is mature in the sense that it already has a very large deployed base. But the deployment mix is still changing, because growth is concentrating in higher-frequency bands and in network layers that need rapid scaling.
Microwave backhaul also remains the dominant method by deployed link count because of immediacy of deployment, cost, and accessibility (Wireless Backhaul Evolution). That explanation matters. If a technology keeps winning on practical rollout factors, its installed base can stay strong even while fiber continues to expand in parallel.
The deployed base also supports a broad range of use cases. Lower-frequency bands are still important for long-range, high-availability transport, while higher bands are increasingly used where capacity density matters more than raw reach (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
Band mix and spectrum shifts
The most important structural change is the rise of E-band.
E-band accounted for about 6% of the global installed base in 2022, and its share grew to 8% of the global installed base today (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). That shift is meaningful because E-band has now surpassed the long-established 38 GHz band in global share (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
Band share snapshot
| Band or band group | Reported share or status | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| E-band | 8% of global installed base today | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
| E-band in 2022 | About 6% of global installed base | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
| 38 GHz band | Surpassed by E-band in global share | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
| 6-11 GHz bands | Around 25% of global market share | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
| 6-8 GHz subset | About 18% of global installed base | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
| 32 GHz band | More than 2% of global installed base | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
| North America, 6-11 GHz | More than 60% of links | Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025 |
That table shows a market that is not concentrating in only one frequency family. Lower bands still matter at scale, but E-band is now large enough to displace an established incumbent in global share terms.
E-band also has deployments in all regions worldwide (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). That global presence is significant because it signals that the band is no longer experimental or isolated to a few dense metro markets.
The 32 GHz band now represents more than 2% of the global installed base (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). That is smaller than the leading bands, but it is enough to show that the market is broadening between the traditional lower bands and the highest-capacity millimetre-wave options.
Regional deployment patterns
Regional variation is still one of the defining features of microwave backhaul. The report set shows that regional E-band share ranges from a couple of percent to around 25% across regions (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). Some selected countries have already exceeded the roughly 25% E-band share level (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
That spread suggests that deployment patterns are strongly shaped by local spectrum access, topology, rollout density, and demand for high-capacity links.
A few regional markers stand out:
- E-band currently holds a 3.5% share of the installed base in India (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- In North America, more than 60% of links are in the 6-11 GHz bands (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- Lower-frequency bands between 6 and 11 GHz are cited as vital for rural and long-haul links because they provide long-range, high-availability transport (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
This combination matters. A region can be heavily weighted toward lower frequencies and still be part of the same global transition toward more E-band use. The difference is often not whether microwave backhaul is needed, but which band is best aligned with the local network shape.
Why regional share diverges
Three forces appear repeatedly in the source statistics:
- Long-range transport still favors lower bands.
- Dense metro and capacity-driven deployments favor higher bands.
- Availability requirements push operators into multi-band designs where lower frequencies provide a reliability anchor (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
The result is not a single global pattern, but a portfolio of band choices.
5G backhaul usage
One of the strongest indicators of microwave backhaul relevance is its role in live 5G networks. Microwave backhaul is used in 75% of live 5G networks globally today (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
That figure is easy to miss if the conversation stays focused only on fiber buildouts or on millimetre-wave capacity. But from a network operations standpoint, it is decisive. If three quarters of live 5G networks still use microwave backhaul, then the technology remains a structural part of 5G transport rather than a legacy remainder.
This helps explain why the installed base remains large and why the market continues to evolve rather than contract. Microwave backhaul is doing two things at once:
- supporting existing macro deployments at scale,
- and expanding into higher-capacity use cases as network density increases (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
Forecasts through 2027
The forecast figures show that growth is not distributed evenly across technologies or bands. Some areas expand slowly, while others accelerate sharply.
Forecast comparison
| Metric | 2021 | 2027 | Growth signal | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macro cell backhaul links | 8.1 million | 11.1 million | 4.6% growth rate | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| Small cell backhaul links | 1.6 million | 6.1 million | 25.8% CAGR | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| 14-25 GHz band | - | - | 1.9% CAGR | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| 26-56 GHz band | - | - | 10.3% CAGR | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| 71-86 GHz E-band | - | - | 11.6% CAGR | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| E-band links | - | 2.3 million | 71% of overall millimetre-wave links by 2027 | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| W-band links | - | around 310,000 | deployment growth through 2027 | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
| D-band links | - | around 389,000 | deployment growth through 2027 | Wireless Backhaul Evolution |
The most striking contrast is between macro cell backhaul and small cell backhaul. Macro cell links rise from around 8.1 million in 2021 to 11.1 million in 2027, which implies a 4.6% growth rate (Wireless Backhaul Evolution). Small cell backhaul links rise from 1.6 million in 2021 to 6.1 million in 2027, which implies a 25.8% CAGR (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
That gap is the story. Macro remains the bigger base, but small cells are expanding much faster, which creates demand for more flexible and capacity-rich transport.
The band-level forecasts reinforce that story. The 14-25 GHz band segment grows at a 1.9% CAGR from 2021 to 2027, while the 26-56 GHz band segment grows at 10.3% CAGR and the 71-86 GHz E-band segment grows at 11.6% CAGR (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
The E-band link forecast is especially important. E-band links are forecast to reach 2.3 million by 2027, and those 2.3 million E-band links would account for 71% of overall millimetre-wave links by 2027 (Wireless Backhaul Evolution). That means the fastest-growing slice of the market is not merely growing; it is becoming a dominant part of millimetre-wave deployment volume.
Macro-cell and small-cell split
The macro-cell view and the small-cell view both point to continued growth, but with different shapes.
- W-band links are forecast to increase to about 166,000 by 2027 in the macro-cell view (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
- D-band links are forecast to increase to about 214,000 by 2027 in the macro-cell view (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
- W-band macro-cell links carry a 26.5% CAGR from 2021 to 2027 (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
- D-band macro-cell links carry a 28% CAGR from 2021 to 2027 (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
- Small-cell E-band links grow from around 280,000 in 2021 to 668,000 in 2027, implying a 13.2% CAGR (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
- Small-cell throughput rates in suburban, urban, and dense urban sites range from 10 Gbps to 20 Gbps using E-band wireless transport (Wireless Backhaul Evolution).
That set of numbers shows a layered market. E-band is the scale band. W-band and D-band are the emerging trial and next-step capacity bands. Small cells are the demand engine that makes higher-capacity transport more valuable.
Availability, rain zones, and engineering tradeoffs
The source statistics are unusually useful on reliability, because they explain why deployment choices differ by environment.
E-band provides 10 GHz of spectrum, and W-band provides almost twice the spectrum of E-band, nearly 20 GHz of spectrum (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). E-band, W-band, and D-band can deliver up to 10 Gbps each (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
But those capacity claims are tied to availability targets and antenna assumptions. The 10 Gbps figures are tied to 99.995% and 99.9% availability targets, using 0.3 m antennas (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
The practical split is clear:
- 99.995% availability is typically needed for single-band deployments (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- 99.9% availability is acceptable for multi-band deployments (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
- Multi-band deployments use a lower-frequency band to secure overall high availability (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
The weather context matters too. In European rain zones, the 0.01% time rainfall threshold is more than 32 mm/h (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). In Indian rain zones, the 0.01% time rainfall threshold is more than 62 mm/h (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
Those figures explain why the same spectrum band can look very different from one region to another. High-frequency links may be very attractive for capacity, but engineering design still has to respect local rain conditions and the required uptime target.
Regulatory and spectrum outlook
The regulatory environment is not standing still. Some countries have reassigned 5,925-6,425 MHz for unlicensed uses such as Wi-Fi and NR Unlicensed (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). That kind of change affects how spectrum is allocated and how lower bands are managed.
The WRC 2027 study bands include 7.125-8.4 GHz and 14.8-15.35 GHz (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025). Those WRC 2027 bands overlap with the 7 GHz, 8 GHz and 15 GHz wireless backhaul bands (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
That overlap matters because it signals continued attention to the spectrum regions that support established backhaul use cases. Even as higher bands grow, the lower and mid-range backhaul bands remain politically and technically important.
What the numbers imply
Taken together, the statistics describe a market with three simultaneous realities.
First, microwave backhaul remains large and operationally essential. A 10.5 million transceiver installed base and 75% usage in live 5G networks are not transitional numbers (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
Second, the band mix is changing. E-band has moved ahead of 38 GHz in global share, now sits at 8% of the installed base, and is already deployed in every region (Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
Third, the next wave of growth is capacity-led. Small cell backhaul grows much faster than macro backhaul, E-band grows faster than older mid-band segments, and W-band and D-band are moving from pre-commercial or emerging status toward wider attention in the deployment pipeline (Wireless Backhaul Evolution; Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2025).
That is the core microwave backhaul story: a mature transport layer that still has room to grow, especially where spectrum efficiency, speed of deployment, and high-capacity wireless transport are all needed at once.