ZTE outlook brightens on CSL deal

Mainland telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp says its new infrastructure project with Hong Kong mobile-telephone network operator CSL will position it as a global top three supplier of WCDMA 3G gear.

That rosy prospect was outlined yesterday after CSL unveiled what it claims is the city's highest-speed mobile-telephone network, with data downloads of up to 21 megabits per second, based on ZTE technology. That is two to three times faster than existing networks.

ZTE began building the new mobile network for CSL 11 months ago, and the number of base stations has now exceeded 2,000. The company said the partnership with CSL could strengthen its market position in developed markets such as North America and Europe by next year.

"We know several high-end customers could have concerns about our product quality, but right now the success of the CSL deployment has proven us strong in order delivery management," said ZTE's vice-president Xu Ming.

ZTE is already a leading supplier of CDMA and TD-SCDMA technologies but had lagged behind in WCDMA.

However, with the launch of 3G mobile services in China, in addition to the fast-growing market in Asia, the company aims to be the third-biggest supplier of WCDMA-related equipment next year.

The European-developed WCDMA is the most widely used 3G technology in the world.

"We were ranked fourth last year," said Mr Xu. "Our shipment of WCDMA products doubled last year compared with previous years, and we are confident we will maintain high growth this year."

ZTE was one of the contractors for China Unicom's WCDMA 3G mobile network this year and has completed the installation of more than 2,600 base stations in Shenzhen. Unicom will introduce 3G service in 55 cities by May 17, and the company plans to have 290 cities 3G-ready eventually.

"Together with the 3G kick-off in China, other countries in the region, like India, Vietnam and Pakistan, have also issued 3G mobile licences, so we are optimistic about our overseas market development this year," Mr Xu said.

ZTE senior vice-president Xu Huijun said the company would also provide wireless modems for laptop computer users for the 21 megabits per second download speed but not until the second quarter owing to chipset supply issues.

Meanwhile, CSL had invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" to build a new software-defined radio platform to manage its 2G and 3G networks in the entire spectrum. The new network will also support a migration to the next-generation LTE network in the future.

Construction of the CSL network, which is bigger than that built by CSL's previous supplier, Nokia Siemens Networks, has proceeded without interrupting the services of existing customers. The company had written down the value of the old network in its interim results last year.

"The plane was flying, and we changed the engine," said CSL chief executive Tarek Robbiati. "We built the network without affecting existing network operations, and customers were not aware of this."

Mr Robbiati said the new network was based on the successful experience of parent Telstra's Next G mobile network technology.

CSL is the first full internet protocol-based network to support high-speed-packet-access-plus technology, which provides two to three times faster download speeds than the 3.5G mobile technology.