ZTE in W-CDMA talks with European operators

Chinese vendor sees good opportunity for W-CDMA kit in Europe.

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ZTE Corporation has attracted interest in its W-CDMA combined trunking and mobile solution from at least 5 European mobile operators as plans to roll out 3G services continue apace during the next few months.

The vendor is pinning its hopes of success in the European market partly on anticipated demand for its equipment in its home market of China.

According to Zhenge Sun, a director at ZTE s technology centre in Shenzhen, the roll out of W-CDMA in China will provide enough momentum for European operators to follow suit.

If it s popular there it will be popular in Europe, he told TOTAL TELECOM. Operators in Europe will be setting up trials soon, and at least five are interested in our system.

Central to ZTE s W-CDMA proposition is the assertion that deploying trunking and mobile solutions in one system saves on capex compared to other solutions.

In Europe, this type of solution will be crucial, said Sun, It s a more cost effective way to deploy 3G.

He claims ZTE s approach is unique, and is better in terms of trunking than IP-based solutions.

Some operators are trying to do W-CDMA [trunking] with VoIP, but that s not so good because VoIP only works well in the core of the network, he said.