ZTE well-positioned for CDMA growth

Shenzhen: A long-time competitor in China s telecoms market, ZTE plans to take a large share of the country s promising CDMA mobile business.Hou Weigui, president of ZTE, predicted his company will earn 2 billion yuan (US$241 million) of contracted revenue this year from the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) sector that is set to launch in coming months.

China Unicom has been approved by the state as the only operator to conduct CDMA system, widely seen as a superior technology to the GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) that currently dominates the Chinese mobile market.ZTE, along with many local and international companies, are bidding to supply the systems for the CDMA network.

Hou did not reveal his company s tactics, but said he was confident that it would gradually obtain 30 percent of the domestic market share in the coming years.ZTE started work on a CDMA system in 1995 and its ZXC10 CDMA mobile communication system was recently granted a license by the Ministry of Information Industry.

It developed the world s first GSM-CDMA interoperable SIM (System of Identification Module) card last October, allowing greater adaptability between CDMA and GSM networks.The new compatible ZTE802 handset is expected to be released on the market in June.It is scheduled to secure contracted revenues of 16.

5 billion yuan (US$2 billion) in 2001, up from last year s 10.2 billion (US$1.2 billion).Hou said mobile communication, broadband data network and optical communication will be the focuses of the company s growth.ZTE issued 50 million A shares and raised 1.6 billion yuan (US$192.8 million) last month, which it will use to develop its three targeted sectors.

The State Development Bank last month granted the company 7 billion yuan (US$843 million) of buyer s credit to allow domestic firms to purchase ZTE s telecoms equipments.Telecom switch systems, ZTE s traditional profit-making sector, is expected to maintain steady growth.Hou said the switches were popular in the overseas market and predicted the company would retain market share for at least 20 years.

The telecommunications industry is such a promising and rapidly changing sector that we should always keep our mind alert and continue innovating, Hou noted.