Service Beyond Expectations

ZTE’s End-to-End Project Delivery Solutions

With increasing competition in the telecommunication industry, operators are facing challenges such as ensuring network quality, reducing operating costs, and improving customer service. These all lead to higher requirements on equipment vendors. As well as manufacturing cost-effective equipment, vendors need to demonstrate strong project delivery and engineering service capabilities in order to win valuable contracts. As China’s leading telecom equipment vendor, ZTE has established close cooperation with local partners and global operators, providing end-to-end delivery solutions for turnkey projects worldwide. The breadth of ZTE’s expertise ranges from planning and design, logistics, site survey, installation, and commissioning, to optimization and maintenance.

Project-Oriented Network Planning and Design

The first step of any rollout, network planning is a decisive factor in controlling overall operating costs. ZTE provides first-class project-oriented network planning and design for operators. In a project completed for the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), ZTE adhered to the principle of completing a detailed plan first, then implementing it in stages. ZTE provided both guidance and database support for follow-up on the network rollout. By using a variety of cutting-edge telecommunication technologies, the far-seeing network plan now allows for smooth upgrade and evolution of the network. Figures published by ETC showed that the number of mobile phone subscribers in Ethiopia rose from around 1.2 million in September 2007 to 4.3 million in September 2009, and the penetration rate of mobile subscribers increased from 1.6% in September 2007 to the current figure of 5.1%. In March 2010, after completion of the GSM Phase III project, ETC’s mobile network capacity reached 18 million lines, and its signal coverage reached 64% of the total land area. Ethiopia instantly became one of the most developed African countries in terms of telecommunications.

Smart and Lean Logistics

Fast network delivery cannot be achieved without a smart, lean, large-scale, and customized logistics model. Logistics of equipment providers should aim towards lowest cost, highest quality, and fastest response, and accurate planning is fundamental for meeting these criteria. ZTE plans production according to the customer’s requirements and remains flexible for making necessary adjustments. This ensures equipment is delivered on time using the most effective means of transportation. In addition, ZTE deals with any material shortage or quality abnormalities in a timely way by issuing project processing reports and holding regular problem-solving meetings. To manage unexpected events in international cargo handling, ZTE also coordinates with smart and lean logistics teams to reduce the duration of cargo transport.

So far, five logistics centers have been built to service countries in Africa, Europe, America, and South Asia. They are located in Dubai, Amsterdam, Miami, Panama, and Bangkok. In 2010, ZTE established regional logistics centers in India, South Africa, Turkey, Western Europe and Brazil, and developed 62 multi-model transport routes, comprising 36 sea-air routes in Africa and South America, 8 land routes in Southeast Asia, and 18 other rail-bus and rail-air routes.

High Quality Network Construction

By establishing a Regional Site Model Database and issuing regular updates on the demands coming from different operators and areas, managing a large number of sites has become easier. Site models make planning, purchasing, and civil engineering work predictable and greatly reduce construction costs. Such models are commonly applied in geographically complicated or densely populated regions, which saves the operator a great amount of money when compared with alternatives.

During network construction, quality assurance is often an operator’s biggest concern. ZTE has an assurance system for design, civil engineering work, and installation and commissioning. Since most of the civil engineering work is accomplished as a joint effort between ZTE and a local partner, ZTE has a strict management system for subcontractors. Regular training, certification, and routine inspections are organized to enhance the technical skills of subcontractors and to ensure that ZTE’s technical standards and engineering regulations are met. So far, ZTE has established partnerships with more than 1,700 local subcontractors worldwide. By leading these local subcontractors, ZTE is capable of deploying a network in any corner of the globe. Moreover, with ZTE’s three-tier quality control system, strict quality checks are required from each project’s quality manager.

Professional and Effective Network Optimization

Optimization is also key to network construction and development. After a network rollout, optimization is needed to enhance the network’s performance and allow for future maintenance and expansion.

ZTE is able to provide professional 3-dimensional network coverage solutions. Advanced, highly-efficient network optimization tools make data collection and analysis automatic and intelligent, allowing solutions to be automatically generated and doubling optimization efficiency. The Call Detail Trace (CDT) network optimization platform builds a dedicated network, provides reliable telecommunication service to each customer, enhances the subscriber experience, and allows more users to enjoy the service of modern technology.

To allow prompt contact with and response to our many customers, ZTE has 2,000 installation and commissioning engineers, 2,000 maintenance engineers, and 1,000 engineering experts working in 107 representative offices worldwide. To date, 42 Local Customer Support Centers, 7 Regional Customer Support Centers, 9 Regional Distribution Centers, 6 Return and Repair Centers, and 69 Spare Parts Warehouses have been established to serve 500 operators in 140 countries.

With many years of network construction experience, ZTE provides high quality end-to-end all-service solutions, and has successfully delivered and signed off on projects in record time. ZTE is now recognized by a growing number of operators as being committed to offering the best service in the industry.