Microwaves on NYC Sites?

Coming out of Manhattan I was stuck in traffic on the BQE and spotted this bunch of antennas. Looking at the 4th panel from the left, it looks like a microwave dish on the top left side. I'm kind of surprised to see that, as in dense cities most operators use fixed-line backhaul. Not that there's anything wrong with using a microwave link on a city site, actually I'm working heavily with microwave lately so I'm happy to see it

But just not something seen too often. I'm wondering what operator would be doing that? And whats the little square black panel on the bottom? Or is it a box, maybe a TMA or something?

 

Thanks, yea, that makes sense. Leasing PDH links (E1's/ T1's) isn't enough for 4G speeds. I've seen some operators use regular DSL links ("pseudo-wire") but they can be unreliable and bandwidth isn't always up to par. The microwaves I'm working with at the moment are capable of native ethernet and links can easily go above 100Mbps. And owning your own link is always better than having to rely on a 3rd party (ie: leased lines). So to take fiber up to a hub site and then break out from there with microwaves sounds like a good plan. At least until getting fiber to all sites becomes possible.

Well, the up-front cost of microwaves is more expensive than leasing a fixed line, but if I remember correctly, microwaves usually pay themselves back after about 5 years (comparing costs to a leased line). The microwaves I'm working with right now cost somewhere around $20-50k depending on capacity/config/etc. ...I think.... I'm engineering them, not selling them