Yes, that's correct, one is a transmitter one is a receiver. It is possible to have a bidirectional dish but usually there is a transmitter and a receiver, and yours both point to the same place.

They will require direct line of sight, but potentially the link could be 100km or more with the right kit.

Microwave links are commonly used for other things too, eg the military like them as they are very directional and you can't "tap" them without interrupting them and thereby tipping people off.

They could decide to daisy chain them in the future if they wanted.

There is no reason that this would not be "true 4G", microwave links are easily capable of higher bandwidth and lower maintenance than 4G.

Ubiquiti do some microwave kit, they even let you play with proposed links on their site.

Airfibre products here: https://www.ubnt.com/products/

Link planner here: https://airlink.ubnt.com/

Edited by nemeth782 (Thu 09-Jun-16 10:33:42)

The microwave dishes are not one transmit and one receive, they are full duplex and one is for each operator/company,
So one dish is for EE/3 (managed by MBNL) and another is for Vodafone/O2 (managed by Cornerstone Communications LTD)

2 company's 4 operators.

and latency on microwave is believe it or not is becoming allot less than fibre, as there is not so many miles and hops/routers for a signal to go, as it is pointing directly to another mast, avoiding towns, hills and valleys, and the entire amount of bandwidth is managed my the operator/company, not subject to any slowdowns via a wholesale network such as BT Wholesale,

So, in theory, at a big relay station where lots of mast's point to, Operator A (EE/3 MBNL) would have a lets say 10Gb leased line with guaranteed bandwidth via a wholesaler, and that shared amount of bandwidth would be fed to 10+ masts via their own microwave, instead of having fibre at each mast, which is costly and not always feasible, and can be subject to slowdowns as it might not be a leased line at the site, just fibre, and by having the guaranteed bandwidth centrally they can manage it themselves and distribute it via microwave from site to site. so latency is very small and not noticeable.
and completely in control of the operator.

In reply to a post by thomaswarne01:

and latency on microwave is believe it or not is becoming allot less than fibre, as there is not so many miles and hops/routers for a signal to go, as it is pointing directly to another mast, avoiding towns, hills and valleys,

The guys making their money as "high frequency traders" depend on getting the lowest latency possible between financial exchanges.

One cross-atlantic fibre, named Hibernia Express, is designed to follow the great circle route for UK to New York, to help achieve this.

However, the companies tend to prefer microwave links, and want them to be in the straightest possible line. Here's a feel for someone who has been tracking the links between London and Frankfurt, and the sites used to send microwave across the channel:
https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/hft-...

The BBC had a program about this, which mentions the use of microwave between Basildon and Frankfurt - as Basildon is the home of some major stock exchanges (as is Slough). A 3 minute clip mentions that difference in latency to Frankfurt as
Fibre latency, Basildon to Frankfurt, is 8.4ms.
Microwave latency, Basildon to Frankfurt, is 4.4ms.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p026qp2x

In reply to a post by thomaswarne01:

So one dish is for EE/3 (managed by MBNL) and another is for Vodafone/O2 (managed by Cornerstone Communications LTD)

MBNL run the shared Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure for EE and Three, but CTIL only run the physical tower/site and apparently none of the radio infrastructure. So its quite possible under the joint Beacon project that Vodafone and Telefonica UK (trading as O2) have decided to share a microwave connection. Or its possible one network has used fibre and one has used microwave for back haul. Whereas on an MBNL site its more likely that EE/Three will have engaged MBNL to deliver a shared backhaul connection.

CTIL is simpler than MBNL, as a physical infrastructure share. MBNL was originally set up as a site and 3G RAN share which reduces equipment cabinet / electricity etc costs, but 2G (EE only) and 4G is implemented independently; however for both networks. Not all EE sites are owned/managed by MBNL, and its unclear what the future holds here (probably commercially sensitive since the failed purchase of O2 by Three's owners CK Hutchison).

Sources: http://www.ctil.co.uk/ - and - http://www.mbnl.co.uk/

Wikipedia

The UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, states that it "encourages mobile network operators to share masts and/or sites where possible" [2] and the Mobile Operators Association (MOA) has published a paper on the subject.[3] There is some co-operation between networks. Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) is a joint venture between 3UK and T-Mobile (now EE), and O2 and Vodafone have established a joint team called Cornerstone. The two schemes are different in that MBNL shares antennas while Cornerstone shares sites but not antennas.

Edited by jchamier (Thu 09-Jun-16 14:41:02)

In reply to a post by nemeth782:

Microwave links are commonly used for other things too, eg the military like them as they are very directional and you can't "tap" them without interrupting them and thereby tipping people off.

Well, not always the case!

http://www.lamont.me.uk/capenhurst/original.html

Where we lived at that time (Penyffordd), I could see the tower glinting in the distance as I drove along the A550 towards Hawarden.

It looked like a ventilation system for whatever was underground at the Capenhurst (British Nuclear Fuels) site. But in retrospect, could see the microwave "windows" at the top.

Cheers!

Edited by Ancient_Mariner (Fri 10-Jun-16 19:58:22)

You understand most of the microwave links are run by BT don't you?

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

In reply to a post by nemeth782:

Microwave links are commonly used for other things too, eg the military like them as they are very directional and you can't "tap" them without interrupting them and thereby tipping people off.

Well, not always the case!

http://www.lamont.me.uk/capenhurst/original.html

Where we lived at that time (Penyffordd), I could see the tower glinting in the distance as I drove along the A550 towards Hawarden.

It looked like a ventilation system for whatever was underground at the Capenhurst (British Nuclear Fuels) site. But in retrospect, could see the microwave "windows" at the top.

Cheers!

I live nearby and had no idea. That tower didn't last long, I wonder why they bothered? At that time BT had been moving their trunk lines to fibre for years. I guess by 1994 that process was complete and the tower was redundant.

Edited by deleted (Fri 10-Jun-16 20:47:21)