With the recent acquisition of Axerra, Dragonwave has made a move to diversify their reach in terms of backhaul. Supplying most ofClearwire's backhaul for WiMAX networks through their microwave products, Dragonwave has had a revenue boost due to the 4G service provider deploying and expanding their networks in many major cities throught the United States. This has positioned the company in providing anall-IP based microwave backhaul for service providers. Not limited solelytoWiMAX, their solutions areattractive to new greenfield, overlay, and network expanding LTEdeployments.
The Axerra acquisitionpositions them for providingTDM supportover pseudowire technology, throughtheir packet based microwave solutions. This places them in a good position to provide microwave backhaul to service providers with legacy infrastructure who are not willing to let go of the advantages TDM has to offer. Incumbent operators are amongst these service providers, and their transition away from TDM technologies can be slow and may go through transitional phases.
TDMbackhaul provides for these service providers withlegacy equipment, a certain quality of service and ease of management that can't be found on a regular Ethernet backhaul.
With the acquisition valued at $9.5 million, both sides are eager to expand their customer base and work towards a unified backhaul solution.The complications of having to upkeep 2 separate TDM and IP networks, and in some cases, 3 if they also have an SDH/SONET network, adds value to their services and can attract carrierswhom have been watching this company's product shipments and portfolio grow.
