Smarter Backhaul: Inside the 4th global microwave industry forum.

5G adoption continues to rise globally - and with it, the promise of a hyperconnected world feels less like a concept and more like a reality. According to GSMA Intelligence, nearly 3 billion 5G connections will be added over the next five years which equal to 57% of mobile connections. 5G is already woven into the social, commercial, and industrial fabric, with AI-driven automation streamlines operations across sectors, while fixed wireless access bridges the digital divide in cities and rural areas alike. These are not distant possibilities anymore; they’re the new digital foundations.

But let’s be honest - opportunity does not deploy itself. Translating 5G’s potential into practical rollout emphasise the importance of infrastructure investment. Operators are investing heavily in expanding transport networks, while technology providers are reimagining how to deliver capacity, speed, and efficiency at scale. And that’s where microwave backhaul steps in - powering 5G where fibre cannot reach. 

Much of the future growth will come from emerging regions that have only just begun or are on the cusp of beginning their 5G journeys. One of such regions is North Africa where last month in Casablanca, I joined other industry colleagues at the 4th global microwave industry forum, a two-day deep dive into microwave backhaul technology and the emerging innovations redefining its role in 5G and connectivity more broadly. The atmosphere was unmistakably vibrant: sunlight, sea breeze, and a shared sense that we’re entering the next phase of intelligent connectivity. After several detailed presentations, insightful panel discussions, and – yes, networking, here are my key takeaways.

Is microwave backhaul the unsung hero of 5G? 

Let’s face it - Fibre often steals the headlines, but the key role of microwave in keeping 5G signal alive, accelerating time-to-market for 5G services, providing flexibility and cost-efficiency in complex deployment scenarios cannot be overstated. Notably, microwave backhaul has played a key role in:

• Fast-tracking 5G rollout in markets across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and parts of Asia with limited fibre availability. With North Africa beginning its 5G journey this year, microwave backhaul offers a practical solution to help operators speed up deployment, especially outside urban areas, and bring the benefit of 5G more quickly to consumers and businesses irrespective of their locations.
• Enhancing urban reliability as exemplifies in Dubai where microwave backhaul solutions support 5G/5G-Adavanced sites for connectivity at temporary events and disaster recovery and even acts as a protection layer when fibre networks are disrupted.
• Ensuring network resilience and reach with operators in many emerging markets, such as in Africa, relying on microwave solutions to provide backhaul connectivity for up to 80% of 5G sites. The technology’s adaptability makes it an ideal bridge for rural expansion, complementing gradual fibre growth.

Simply put, while fibre and microwave may not run hand in hand, they’ll certainly move back-to-back for the foreseeable future.

As it has been highlighted at the forum - “Great market demand requires great microwave responsibility”

Before delving into the technical showcases, the forum featured insightful sharing from operators and industry players. Operators reflected on their real-world experiences deploying microwave backhaul for 5G, discussing challenges such as capacity, spectrum allocation, energy efficiency and integration with fibre networks. Meanwhile, other industry organisations shared perspectives on the evolving ecosystem, emphasising standardisation, innovation and collaboration as enablers for the next phase of microwave evolution.

Microwave innovations on display

That said, for anyone who has been in the industry long enough, the limitations of traditional microwave solutions will not come as a surprise. Addressing these limitations has been the focus of the mobile industry for a while now and Huawei appears to have made significant progress here with its vision for next-generation microwave MAGICSwave solution, an acronym for:
Mega capacity, Automation and green performance, Guaranteed latency, Increased density, Coverage enhanced and Scalable networks. The vendor has taken steps to tackle three key challenges - capacity, total cost of ownership (TCO), and investment protection – as demonstrated by the various innovations on display in Casablanca that could shape the future of microwave backhaul. These included: 

• The E-Band full duplex solution which can achieve 50 Gbps per link using 2 GHz channel bandwidth and advanced interference cancellation.
• The NextGen hub site which combines multi-band and multi-beam capabilities in a single compact antenna, reducing tower loading and antenna count, thereby curing tower rental costs.
• The MAGICSwave architecture provides a shared interface and control cards that supports all bands, protecting operators’ investments as they evolve from traditional microwave to E, W, and D-band systems.

E-band takes the fast lane

If 5G is about speed, then E-Band spectrum (71-86GHz) still has the lion’s share delivering fibre-like performance over the air. At the summit, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) shared their vision for block or hybrid licensing models that could help operators reuse spectrum more efficiently - setting the stage for E-Band to become a cornerstone of next-generation microwave networks. It is not surprising therefore that a growing number of countries, including China, India and Nigeria have opened up E-Band to help deliver high backhaul capacities in 5G networks over distances of more than 10km. As a result, E-band’s share of global microwave backhaul shipments has now climbed beyond 20%, from just 1% in 2021, and is poised to accelerate further as 5G demand grows. 

When AI meets microwave

As the discussion evolved, AI took the mic(rowave) and one theme tied everything together: AI has officially entered the microwave equation. The theme of this year’s forum - Empowering Mobile AI - couldn’t be more relevant as AI is becoming integral to mobile networks more broadly, transforming how networks are planned, operated and optimised. AI is now becoming a part of the backhaul DNA, bringing higher efficiency in link planning, operations and maintenance, energy savings, and improved link performance. Several demos at the summit showed just how critical AI will be for future microwave backhaul solutions. For example, Huawei’s Microwave Mate platform highlighted how intelligence flows across both radio and transport layers to drive efficiency and insight, with solutions designed to help engineers perform O&M tasks more efficiently, and an AI agent designed for specific tasks such as fault diagnosis, traffic prediction, energy optimisation, and KPI visualisation.

Final thoughts

If one message echoed through the forum, it was this: innovation thrives on alignment. It’s a fact that mobile backhaul still relies on microwave, and its evolution will depend on how operators, regulators, and vendors collaborate on spectrum licensing, interference management and investment models. As one operator put it during a panel, “Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation - it happens in alignment”. From the E-Band full duplex milestone to AI-powered network intelligence, the forum made one thing clear: the path to a fully connected, intelligent world will be built not by one technology, but by a network of innovators working together. Sunlight, sea breeze and vibrant discussions aside, it was evident that microwave may no longer just be a support act – it certainly has a place in mobile AI future.