SHANGHAI–Chinese vendor ZTE expects to double the size of its business operation in the European market in one year, the company’s president of global sales, Xiao Ming, told reporters.
The executive said that growth prospects include both the network and device business segments. In Europe, ZTE has already signed a number of 5G deals and is currently conducting trials with large operators including Telefonica, Orange and Wind Tre, among others.
He also said that the network business represents nearly 25% of ZTE’s overall business in Europe.
“Europe is one of our top priorities and we will continue to invest in this region to expand growth across all business segments,” he said on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress 2019 Shanghai.
The executive also highlighted that most of 5G launches in Europe are NSA networks which would not yet allow consumers to enjoy the main features of 5G technology. “The Real 5G is based on SA networks. For instance, Orange has said that they aim to deploy 5G through a SA network. Deployments of SA 5G networks in Europe will start to take place next year as we believe that the whole ecosystem of SA will be ready by the beginning of next year,” he said.
However, the executive said that the main growth engine for the vendor will continue to be the Asian region, specifically, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
The company has already shipped over 50,000 5G base stations, mainly in China, where local carriers have already announced aggressive plans for the deployment of this technology. Regarding the outlook for the second half of the year, he was not able to provide a specific figure for 5G base stations shipments but said that growth will continue to come from deployments in China. “We will expands the shipments of 5G base stations considerably,” he said.
Commenting on ZTE’s 5G ambitions, he said that the vendor has already inked 25 5G contracts and is collaborating with 60 operators in the 5G field. “Our goal is to transform these collaboration agreements into commercial 5G contracts. However, some of the 5G agreements in Asia will be converted in 5G contracts only next year ,” he said.
ZTE is also putting the focus to expand its growth in the Indian market, as local carriers are expecting to launch 5G services next year after the government awards spectrum for this technology. “We have been expanding our market share in India in the device business. India one of our key growth markets and we expect to continue growing there. Regarding the future deployment of 5G, the main challenge for this market would be the spectrum allocation,” the executive said.
He added that ZTE has been providing its Massive MIMO technology to local carriers in order to expand the capacity and the efficiency of current 4G networks.
