More than 600,000 households and businesses in Bogota to enjoy up to 100-fold increase in connection speeds in first phase of FTTH network rollout in Bogota

10 February 2014, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment, network solutions and mobile devices, is pleased to help Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá S.A. (ETB) launch the first phase of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network in Bogota, giving households and businesses in the capital city an up to 100-fold increase in connection speeds.

The first phase of the commercial rollout in December covered corporate customers in Bogotá, ensuring ETB fulfilled its target to launch the network by the end of 2013. The FTTH network, which uses ZTE’s industry-leading gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology, will connect more than 600,000 customers, and cover 85% of households in the capital city when construction is fully completed in three years.

“With this technological advancement, we can offer new services and provide N-Play, supporting  data, voice, video and cloud applications at fantastic speeds,” said Saúl Kattan Cohen, President of ETB. “ETB always puts the interests of our customers first, and having ZTE as our reliable supplier has helped us deliver in our commitment to users.”

The new FTTH network will give households and businesses in Bogotá an increase of between 10 to 100 times in network speeds. Previously, 2 Mbps connections are considered broadband in Colombia and the majority of Colombian broadband users connect at speeds between 2Mbps to 4 Mbps, according to the most recent report issued by the Commission of regulation of telecommunications (CRT).

ETB is the leading communication service provider in the city of Bogotá, and selected ZTE’s xPON solutions after stringent evaluation based on technology, commercial and experience criteria.

“ZTE is proud to be the strategic supplier of ETB in giving users in Bogotá access to the most advanced technology,” said Xiang Dongsheng, President of ZTE Colombia. “The new network is a milestone in technology innovation in Colombia, and will bring great benefit to the market by stimulating competition, delivering improved services for users, and opening doors to new and drive improvements in business productivity and education in the capital city.”