Summary Bullets:
• A new universal modem card lets North American mobile operators upgrade the capacity of Aviat’s indoor radio units while keeping some network elements in place
• The new Pasolink LH is a new all-indoor long-haul solution that offers high capacity and system gain using relatively small antennas
Wireless backhaul vendor Aviat Networks announced changes to its portfolio of long-haul wireless backhaul products last week, expecting to start shipping new offerings in this year’s third quarter.
The company is integrating its Pasolink products – which were initially acquired from Japanese tech giant NEC in 2023 – with Aviat’s own internally developed indoor radio unit, the IRU600. North American customers (including those currently using Aviat’s Eclipse Mission-Critical Microwave solution) can now upgrade the IRU600 to Aviat’s Pasolink VR platform, which the company says will increase nodal capacity by up to 50% while supporting the installed base of ODU600 outdoor radios. This upgrade is made possible by a new Universal Modem Card supporting Pasolink ODUs, the IRU600 and ODU600 that will be the default modem card for all new Pasolink sales. The Pasolink VR platform includes a series of indoor units (VR2, VR4, and VR10) that were previously only available to adherents to the European telecom standards (ETSI). Now they are available to North American customers using American standards (ANSI).
In addition, customers outside the US will have a new all-indoor option for long-haul links: The new Pasolink LH combines, in a single rack, the company’s existing Pasolink VR10 and the ETSI-based version of IRU600 that Aviat introduced in October 2025. This new version of the IRU600 includes a space-diversity receiver and a new antenna branching system that combines up to 16 channels, delivering over 10 Gbps of aggregate capacity. Aviat says the new Pasolink LH also features a high system gain thanks to its high transmission power output of up to 40 dBm, which enables high-capacity links using relatively small antennas, thus helping to reduce tower costs. And with all active equipment kept indoors, operators won’t need to climb towers to make changes.
Aviat plans to gradually phase out its existing 7000iP TRP trunking product, offering to upgrade that product to the Pasolink LH.
The move to further integrate the acquired former NEC portfolio comes as the wireless backhaul space is expecting another major acquisition sometime soon. Nokia’s move late last year to classify its own wireless backhaul business as “non-core” to its overall growth strategy has kicked off widespread anticipation of a sale of those assets this year, prompting Nokia’s competitors in the space – which include backhaul specialists like Aviat, Ceragon and SIAE as well as providers of broader solution sets, such as Ericsson, Huawei, and ZTE – to court Nokia’s existing customers in the hope of converting them. On an earnings call in May, Ceragon’s CEO said that the “general sentiment” seen among Nokia’s customers is to “wait and see” which entity scoops up Nokia’s business. Aviat itself is a reasonable candidate to make a purchase, considering that it tried unsuccessfully to acquire a key rival, Ceragon, in 2022. The potency of Nokia’s assets in other hands will depend largely on how much overlap it already shares with its acquirer’s existing business, but in general, such an acquisition could create a very formidable new competitor in the space. As Aviat demonstrated this week, integrating such assets for a global market is likely to be a years-long process.
Aviat’s Wireless Transport Portfolio
Source: Aviat Networks, May 2026