Mr. Potharlanka: We are one of the nation's leading wireless backhaul services and transport solutions providers. We provide services to wireless carriers, traditional telecom service providers and the government segment. The wireless carriers have been a major focus of our company for a long time, and they continue to be so. We bring large amounts of bandwidth to cell sites to support their 3G and 4G networks, and our solutions are typically fiber-fed and augmented by microwave extensions.
TWST: What historically has been the marketplace and how has it evolved over the recent past? Who makes up your customer base?
Mr. Potharlanka: The wireless industry has changed quite dramatically over the last 18 months. Carriers are realizing that the days of turning up capacity to cell sites in the form of T1 increments are over. The convergence of smartphones, new applications and the deployment of 4G networks is creating almost a perfect storm for bandwidth explosion at cell sites. You're seeing this in subscriber unit lineups from T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless. You're also seeing this in the form of public announcements of 4G deployments by all the major wireless carriers. In fact, companies like Leap and MetroPCS are also evolving their networks to 4G.
So what does all this mean? It means wireless carriers are demanding a tremendous amount of bandwidth to their cell sites. The interesting part is they want this bandwidth provided quickly in order to support their 4G launches, and some of the subscriber units and applications they are bringing to the market. Most interesting about this whole dynamic is that the solutions required to provide large amounts of bandwidth in the form of Ethernet just don't exist today at the cell sites. You cannot just turn up more T1s. So the wireless carriers require and need companies, such as FiberTower, to bring these types of cost-effective capacities and solutions in a timely manner to the sites. It's a nontrivial problem to solve. So I think between the industry dynamics and the complexity of delivering the solution, it does create quite an interesting opportunity for companies like FiberTower.
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