NEC Corp. has reported that shipments of its ultra-compact microwave communications system, PASOLINK, have surpassed more than 1 million total units. The 200,000 shipments figure was reached in 2004, following approximately 20 years of availability, and the system soon eclipsed 500,000 total units in February 2007. Most recently, shipments to mobile telephone carriers in such markets as Asia and the Middle East, where rapid economic expansion has taken place, have contributed significantly to PASOLINK breaking through the 1 million unit mark.

Currently, Africa is a major source of increasing mobile demand, and the transition from 2G to 3G mobile communications is undergoing rapid acceleration. These quickly changing market conditions in this region and other parts of the world have led to the development and release of PASOLINK NEO HP, as a solution for the construction of high capacity networks.

It boasts Multilevel Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (256QAM), which more than doubles the machine’s transmission capacity when compared to current models (more than 1 Gbps capability), in addition to the system’s VLAN/QoS/AMR functionality, and high capacity IP data transmission, which is required for mobile backhaul as well as networks supporting WiMAX and communications between mobile phone base stations and base station control units. Initial shipments of the new system have already begun with an order to one of Europe’s leading communications carriers.