ZTE Charters Strong Growth Story in India

ZTE, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, today announced a record breaking performance in the last fiscal in India, despite a challenging economic environment.

The company registered a strong growth of 50% increase in sales reiterating its leadership position in the Indian telecom market.

ZTE currently enjoys over 75% market share for NGN products and is also the market leader in CDMA category. Additionally, ZTE experienced large-scale growth coming from the GSM space in India. There was a growth of 50% in the India workforce over last year’s total head count which translates to 10% of the total global hires last year by ZTE Corporation.

Key data released by ZTE supports the impressive growth story and provides proof-points of company’s multi-fold investments in the Indian market for 2010. Underlining their commitment to the Indian market, the primary areas of focus for ZTE in the coming years would be diverse product strategy powered by innovative technology, workforce development and extended presence in the country through new touch points.

ZTE: Best Fit for Powering the Indian Telecom Industry

The Indian telecom sector is experiencing revolutionary growth and is poised at a crucial turning point with the 3G wave. To meet the evolving requirements of the industry, ZTE plans to make targeted investments in the 2G, 3G, bearer network and fixed line broadband in the Indian market. In a 3G focused environment, the UTMS market size is expected to be around 50 billion dollars while the WiMAX segment will be to the tune of 20 billion dollars.

In the WiMAX arena, ZTE has emerged as a strong contender having already made successful in-roads in the Indian 3G market with its BSNL WiMAX win in 2009. In the UTMS product space, ZTE’s SDR solutions have surfaced as the most compelling offering for the operators today. The SDR solutions enable a smooth evolution from 2G to 3G, and are cost-effective, giving ZTE an edge over the intense competition in the market. Given its proven track record in creating a successful 3G experience in China, coupled with the understanding of the local market dynamics and technology expertise, ZTE proves to be the best fit to partner India in building its 3G networks.

 “This growth story is a result of our continued and strong commitment in the India Market. Having seen many phases of growth and challenges, I am proud to announce this continued momentum. Our firm foundation, core technology capabilities and strategic priorities were instrumental in driving our sustained success,” said Dr. D.K. Ghosh, Chairman and Managing Director, ZTE India Pvt. Ltd. He further added, “We are well placed to lead the emerging wave of technology that the telecom industry will see in the form of 3G. As we work towards our strategic vision, we promise to support India every inch of the way in traversing this journey successfully.”

Strengthening India Linkages

The company is ready to ride on the 3G wave to promote its offerings in the space of data card and mobile handsets market. Additionally, on the engineering front ZTE India will focus on enhancing project delivery capacity. Some of the key initiatives include:

■    Establishment of technical support departments, building a core team of 600 people to capitalize on local technological capabilities;

■    Introducing a new line of leadership at the regional level for each circle to facilitate targeted capacity building;

■    Increased external contractors training and capacity building;

■    Logistics control.

Creating Value for the Ecosystem: Validating Continued Importance of India

ZTE aims to create value for the ecosystem by continuous knowledge transfer in the Indian market and generate opportunities for employment. The attempt is to focus on quality in order to bring together a high performing talent group. The company aims to keep the staff training rate over 80%. Additionally, in the first half of 2010, it plans to train 314 product experts in the 2G and 3G domain for its India Engineering Centre.

The company also unveiled its plans to set-up its local laboratory in India along with a local after-sales staff to effectively manage projects. Efforts are also on to build the Network Operation Center (NOC) line of business to provide managed services, operation and maintenance for projects. To support this initiative, ZTE plans to additionally hire around 800 employees as technical staff in India in the current year.