Ericsson on Friday said that it will soon complete an extensive upgrade of 3 Italia''s backhaul network. 3 Italia - a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, which pioneered the 3G era - will then be able to offer its customers downlink speeds of up to 42Mbps.

Within the scope of the project, initiated in 2011, Ericsson is upgrading and evolving 3 Italia's network architecture and helping the operator migrate to an end-to-end, full-IP backhaul and access architecture.

"Since our world-first launch of UMTS in 2003, we have taken a proactive approach to building and maintaining a state-of-the-art network for our customers. Consumers expect a fast and reliable 3G network that meets their requirements when accessing their voice, video, internet and mobile TV services via mobile devices. We have a long-standing relationship with Ericsson, which supplies us with radio-access networks (RANs) and services, and we are happy that Ericsson is now also our technology and services partner for our backhaul network", said Dina Ravera, Chief Operating Officer, 3 Italia.

Ericsson is the sole supplier of the upgrade, responsible for design, installation and system integration. The upgrade includes Ericsson's microwave MINI-LINK products, its optical Smart Packet Optical (SPO) 1400 products and its SmartEdge 600 Multi-Service Edge Router.

" Italia's backhaul upgrade will provide the operator's end-users with fast data services, improving the end-user experience on all devices. I am pleased that Ericsson is now involved in this part of 3 Italia's network", said Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Region Mediterranean, Ericsson.