Is ZTE the Hidden Dragon of WiMAX?
When BusinessWeek recently ranked the top 20 Chinese brands, ZTE was bound to have a place of honor. It has built up a terrific reputation for developing and delivering aggressively.
Started in 1985 in Shenzhen, China, its 31000-strong team shoots across the spectrum with its wide range of product lines. It competes with Tier 1 vendors as well as small ones for CPE devices. Claiming to spend 10% of its revenue (that’s $2.7 billion in 2005) on R&D, it has earned grudging respect from its competitors.
It has struck deals with most big players (Intel, Fujitsu, Ericsson, France Telecom, Hutchison Whampoa, to name a few). It has won plenty of deals (Serbia, parts of Europe, Angola, Morocco, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and of course China too). Its first wireless win in North America is a deal with Telus to supply EV-DO cards.
But then, why is it a dark dragon? Well, unlike most other vendors who shout hoarsely from rooftops about every teeny-weeny twiddle bit of progress, it keeps a relatively quieter profile. Although accused of unleashing a price war, its plus points are its massive investment in development and its ability to compete across the market segments. In WiMAX, it is one of the few players to have products in the fixed and mobile categories. It has not publicized its WiMAX strategy much and there has not been much of a buzz in China about WiMAX either. If China is planning to bolster the wireless offerings during the Olympics in 2008 with WiMAX, then ZTE stands a good chance of winning that deal too.
Further Reading:
The BusinessWeek article on China’s Top 20 Brands
ZTE to supply Sprint Nextel with WiMAX devices
ZTE’s win in India
Recent ZTE and Telus announcement.
Another example of ZTE expansion.
