Chinese vendor ZTE announced its 2019 net profit amounted to CNY5.15 billion ($726 million), a year-on-year growth of 173.7%.
The company attributed the positive performance to double-digit growth in Asia and Africa, and strong gains in the vendor’s network group, which offset a decline in revenue in its consumer division.
In 2018, the vendor had recorded a net loss of CNY6.98 billion, as the company had been hit by a $1 billion penalty imposed by the US, along with operating losses and provisions related to the suspension of its business.
The vendor’s operating revenue had reached CNY90.74 billion in 2019, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.1%, of which operating revenue from operators’ networks reached CNY66.58 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.7%.
The vendor noted that it has been continuously enhancing its investment on 5G research and development. For the twelve months ended 31 December 2019, ZTE’s research and development costs amounted to CNY12.55 billion, which represented 13.8% of operating revenue.
ZTE also highlighted that it has already obtained 46 5G commercial contracts globally, and established cooperation with over 70 operators worldwide. The vendor noted that these 5G contracts cover major markets across China, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
ZTE said that it has already carried out 5G cooperation with operators including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Orange, Telefonica, Wind Tre, Hutchison Drei Austria, and MTN.
In the Chinese market, ZTE has participated in the initial phase of 5G network construction by the country’s three telecom operators.
ZTE also highlighted that the company is currently making large investments to expand the vendor’s competitiveness in the 5G field. These investments are made in the areas of core chipsets, core network and ubiquitous artificial intelligence.
“In China, ZTE has helped operators build the world’s largest multi-mode hybrid-architecture network and the world’s largest RAN sharing network, achieving Giga+ 5G continuous coverage experience. Meanwhile, the company has cooperated with top operators overseas to build 5G commercial networks in Spain, Austria, Italy and other countries, and continued to promote global 5G deployments,” the vendor said in a release.
Moreover, ZTE’s end-to-end 5G transport products have been deployed on a large scale, the company said. By the end of 2019, more than 40 5G commercial transport networks and existing network pilot sites had been deployed in China, Italy, Austria, and other countries.
“As we entered into 2020, we are facing the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, which has profoundly impacted the global economy,” the company said. “During the outbreak of coronavirus in 2020, the company has been actively practicing social responsibility. By means of its global business networks and resources, ZTE Foundation has donated face masks, alcohol, nucleic acid testing equipment, and other materials, proactively responding to the actual requirements of hospitals to assist the front line against coronavirus.
“ In full support of operators in communication construction in this critical period, ZTE has partnered with operators to build 4G/5G networks for 210 hospitals in 82 cities of 26 provinces in China. Within only 24 hours, ZTE’s video conferencing system was deployed in Wuhan’s 20 mobile cabin hospitals.”
In addition, ZTE said it has further strengthened the application of 5G in specific scenarios and deployed 5G applications in various industries, including new media, cloud workspace, telemedicine, distance education, and video surveillance to fight against coronavirus, quickly improving the competitiveness of its products and solutions.
