Long-Reach E-band backhaul: Huawei and Cellnex in first commercial deployment in Europe

Barcelona, Spain – Huawei and Cellnex successfully deployed microwave Long-Reach E-band (LR E-band) backhaul at commercial sites in Poland, the first large-scale commercial use of this technology in Europe. The LR E-band link achieves a remarkable 10km distance with 30% less service disruption, empowering the operator to build networks with significantly lower total cost of ownership.

At a launch event to mark this milestone, Vincenzo Bombelli, Cellnex Global RAN Operations Director, explained that the LR E-band technology was thoroughly tested.

"Old and new links were put in parallel, performing under identical weather conditions," Bombelli said. "The results showed that the LR E-band and Intelligent Beam Tracing (IBT) antennas performed exceptionally well, with better capacity and availability. They reliably achieved 10km link distance with 30% less service disruption, and delivered a 56% link capacity increase resulting in a significant improvement in network quality." he added.

Perry Yang, President of Huawei Microwave Product Line, said: "This achievement reflects the successful collaboration between the two companies, leading to the large-scale application of microwave LR E-band technology in Europe. This validation from the industry is a testament to the experience that will pave the way for further development of 5G microwave applications worldwide."

Cellnex Poland now plans to extend its 5G-ready transport network coverage to the whole country. The LR E-band technology, with its simplified architecture, excellent performance, and rapid deployment, will play a crucial role in realising this vision.

"The Huawei Long-Reach E-band solution has enabled us to establish a high-capacity link up to a distance of 10km. We plan to deploy the long-reach E-band technology on a larger scale to improve both capacity and performance, in line with our high-speed 5G strategy," said Bombelli.