ZTE want business with US carriers, won't sell network equipment to Iran

Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor ZTE Corp. still wants to sell network equipment to the big four U.S. carriers in spite of political hurdles, an executive said Wednesday.

"Although we have been blocked by the U.S. government, we just can't give up breaking into the U.S. market because its size is huge and per-capita spending is high," Richard Ye, senior director of wireless-product operations, told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of Asia Mobile Congress.

ZTE is a major global supplier of telecom hardware and aims to expand in developed markets. But it faces political resistance in the U.S. It has been accused of being a security threat. Some U.S. lawmakers want ZTE and its hometown rival Huawei Technologies Co. restricted.

ZTE Chairman Hou Weigui said in October it won't seek U.S. deals for core network equipment because of these political obstacles. However, Ye said Wednesday ZTE can't just "walk away from this important market."

ZTE continues to talk in the U.S. with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodaphone Group PLC, he added. ZTE does offer feature phones and wireless data cards to these big four carriers but can't supply network equipment.

ZTE won't sell network equipment to countries like Iran so as not to annoy the U.S., Ye added.

That is in contrast to its larger Chinese rival Huawei Technologies Co. When Western companies pulled back from Iran after its bloody crackdown on citizens two years ago, Huawei filled the vacuum and recently agreed to install equipment allowing police to track people using their cellphones, according to interviews with telecom employees both in Iran and elsewhere and corporate bidding documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal last month.

Beyond the U.S., ZTE supplies carriers in Europe and Asia and Ye expects revenue from equipment to continue growing at a double-digit rate next year as global mobile operators adopt high-speed, next-generation technology to ease network bottlenecks amid a surge in mobile network traffic.

"With the rapid adoption of smartphones and other mobile Internet devices, network upgrades are becoming more crucial for operators," Ye said.

(C) Total Telecom