Smart selects NEC for trunk microwave system

Filipino mobile operator Smart Communications, a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), has concluded a contract with Japan’s NEC Corporation for the supply of more than 30 ‘5000 Series’ SDH trunk microwave systems, including deployment, installation and ongoing maintenance services. Smart, the country’s largest cellco by subscribers with close to 35 million users as at 31 December 2008, will use the new platform to provide a high capacity support network for new broadband data revenue streams in order to drive up its average revenue per user (ARPU). Furthermore, the mobile operator’s parent plans to capitalise on the network to provide high speed digital data transmission services.