Digitel Mobile Philippines, which operates under the brand name of Sun Cellular and is the fastest growing mobile telecommunications provider in the Republic of the Philippines, will invest an additional $9 M in Ceragon Networks Ltd.’s mobile backhaul network equipment in an ongoing expansion of its 2G/3G cellular services.

The latest order puts more Ceragon equipment behind a pair of expansion and upgrade projects for Digitel’s 2G/3G metro network. As a result, the operator’s Manila-Cebu Alternative Backbone project will now deliver 3G services to the southern part of the country employing native IP over long-haul microwave technology, while its North Luzon Backbone Expansion project will bring additional 2G service capacity to the north.

Both projects are part of Digitel’s Ceragon-enabled migration to an all-IP Ethernet backhaul network that will better service the range of data, multimedia applications and voice on the operator’s expanded network.

“Microwave is an ideal approach to quickly and easily setting up the most cost-efficient and consistently reliable backhaul network,” said Patrick Lam, Senior Technical Adviser of Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. “Our Ceragon-based backhaul even withstood last year’s devastating typhoon and flooding, making Digitel the only operator able to keep delivering vital telecom services to people in some of the devastated areas of the country.”

“Reliably delivering a demanding range of 3G services and IP-based multimedia applications is a great challenge for operators today,” said Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon. “And with microwave clearly representing the most physically-resilient approach to backhaul, Ceragon looks forward to supporting the high-reliability demands of Digitel’s expanding cellular networks for many years to come.”