RCR Wireless News' China Insights: Exclusive interviews with ZTE and Huawei

SHENZHEN, China–Why did the publisher of RCR Wireless News visit China earlier this month? In many respects, it was to see first hand the explosive growth of the Chinese wireless market. The primary reasons, however, were threefold.
First, RCR Wireless News has always been known for its editorial excellence on all things wireless. With more than 50% of the world’s population located in the Asia Pacific and more than 720 million mobile-phone subscribers in China alone, the United States (in spite of recently surpassing Japan as having the most 3G subscribers) is not the center of the universe in terms of wireless trends. As a result, RCR Wireless News will be allocating more time and resources comparing and contrasting wireless and mobile trends across multiple continents. This goal of this trip was to better understand the Asia-Pacific markets, starting with China.
Second, RCR’s mission is to connect our clients with customers and industry professionals online, in person and in print (digital and paper). Additionally, our core values include listening to our customers while delivering innovative and measurable solutions. ZTE and Huawei long have been two of our largest customers, yet we have never visited their corporate offices.
Finally, we wanted to better understand how two companies, Huawei and ZTE, have been able to sustain double-digit growth and grow their employee base to more than 150,000 people in spite of one of the toughest economies since the Great Depression.
So, with Mary Meeker’s 652-page “The Mobile Internet Report” in hand, I set off for a 10-day trip to China, which included stops in Shenzhen to visit ZTE and Huawei’s global headquarters; Beijing to meet with Gemalto, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, Marbridge Consulting, Symbio and Allied Development Group; and finally Hong Kong, where I visited with the CEOs from CSL and SmarTone-Vodafone, VP of sales for Sequans, along with key leaders of the Mobile Marketing Association – Sean Rach, Director, Digital Media & Corporate Events, Prudential Corp., Asia, and Cecilia