Unless you've faced the woes of backhaul design firsthand, you don't always realize how welcome new solutions are. Today, Ceragon Networks and ECI Telecom announced a partnership to deliver an integrated solution for wireless backhaul that offers reduced time-to-market, improved manageability and lower integration costs.

Building on a long-term relationship between the two companies, the partnership provides a joint multi-service transport radio solution for carriers - providing integrated transport, microwave radio and management for wireless backhaul requirements.

ECI Telecom and Ceragon Partner to Deliver Integrated Solution for Wireless Backhaul

Joint solution offers integrated transport, microwave radio and management for wireless backhaul requirements

PETAH TIKVA and TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, June 4, 2008 - ECI Telecom Ltd., a global provider of networking infrastructure solutions, and Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ and TASE: CRNT), a leading provider of high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions, today announced a partnership to provide a joint multi-service transport radio solution for carriers. The partnership, which strengthens the long-term cooperation between the two market-leading companies, addresses the demand for an end-to-end integrated wireline and wireless backhaul solution, and offers reduced time-to-market, improved manageability and lower integration costs.

By expanding its offering with microwave radio, ECI meets customer requirements for high-capacity and cost-effective backhaul solutions and simplifies the deployment of future backhaul networks. Today's variety of mobile technologies and standards increase the complexity of these backhaul networks. The rising demand for wireless traffic, compounded by the lack of wireline infrastructure, the high cost of leased lines and time to market issues, requires a high-capacity backhaul solution that guarantees support for future needs.

"Modern microwave with both TDM and high speed packet capabilities is necessary for mobile backhaul and other applications, so this partnership makes clear sense to bring together two leading companies in their respective fields," said Michael Howard, Principal Analyst and Co-founder of Infonetics Research. "ECI expands its transport offering with microwave capabilities, Ceragon extends its sales outreach, and their customers will benefit."

To offer carriers an efficient solution with simplified administration, maintenance and provisioning for wireless transport networks, and therefore lower operating expenses, the joint offering is managed by ECI's LightSoft® management system. The joint multi-service transport radio combines ECI's XDM® and Broad-Gate® Multi-Service Provisioning Platforms (MSPP) with Ceragon's FibeAir® IP & SDH microwave technology.

With the highest capacity radio transport in the market today - up to 500 Mbps over a single radio carrier, and a leading multiservice transport platform, the integrated multi-service transport radio solution provides a complete wireless backhaul solution for today's 2G/3G networks, while allowing for a smooth migration to next-generation all-IP Radio Access Network (RAN) and wireless Ethernet. This migration is supported by Ceragon's Adaptive Modulation and native Ethernet capabilities, and by ECI's Integrated TDM, ATM and IP/MPLS capabilities, with virtual little cost to carriers. In addition, Ceragon's innovative radio link protection together with ECI's interface and network protection schemes provide carriers with a cost-effective and reliable option for wireless backhaul solution.

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