ZTE flaunts achievements at CommunicAsia

It has apparently been a very good year for Chinese telecom equipment and network provider ZTE. The Chinese firm announced not only had it leapfrogged rival Alcatel Lucent to become the world’s number two fixed broadband infrastructure provider, but also that it had just won a lucrative passive optical network (PON) equipment deal with China Telekom and will partner with Telekom Malaysia.
At a press conference at CommunicAsia in Singapore, representatives from ZTE boasted that the firm had managed to snap up 16.5% of the market for broadband equipment, and now trailed only Huawei with its 22.6% share of the market. Alcatel Lucent is left trailing with 16.1%.
ZTE’s SVP, Jane Chen, said her firm was seeing seven percent year-on-year growth and had partnerships in over 140 countries.

Despite this worldwide presence, however, ZTE’s main chunk of change comes from its home turf where it provides 55% of broadband fixed access infrastructure, while the remaining 45% are revenues from abroad.
Beefing up its home advantage, ZTE also announced it had just won a passive optical network (PON) equipment deal with China Telecom to supply its ZXA10 xPON platform as part of a city optical network project. The deal is said to be worth over $146 million.
Speaking of PON, ZTE also said it had 10-Gbit/s PON infrastructure in the pipeline, some of which is already being deployed in China and which should begin to become commercially available in 2011.
In Malaysia too ZTE is thriving, with the firm just announcing it has partnered up with Telekom Malaysia Bhd to supply that nation with high-speed broadband, for an undisclosed sum.
Chen told press at CommunicAsia, however, that the telecom industry was undergoing rapid change and that much was shifting towards the cloud – something ZTE plans to focus on intently.
Sameer Ashfaq Malik, ZTE’s director of technical marketing and branding also told the press video applications were having a huge impact, as all carriers were now looking to upgrade their networks to give higher bandwidth and support to video and next generation applications.
Malik also said ZTE had much pride in its terminal pipe and cloud strategy, noting that the pipe was a logical link between the cloud and home terminal. “This is the time for cloud computing,” he declared, adding that ZTE was really honing in on its cloud philosophy.
“Convergence of fixed and mobile networks is a huge achievement for ZTE,” continued Malik who also posited his firm’s network was “greener” as it was more sustainable and had a longer life cycle.