ZTE's GSM shipments up 300 percent--News

ZTE Corp., China's second-largest telecom equipment manufacturer, said yesterday that shipments for its GSM products rose by 300 percent in the first half, as it signs on more operators.

Shenzhen-based ZTE's global GSM capacity was 90 million network lines at the end of the first half of the year, the Shenzhen and Hong Kong-listed company said in a statement.

"The number of countries where we have shipped and sold our GSM solutions globally has doubled since three years ago, reaching more than 40 countries today," said He Zhaogang, general manager of ZTE GSM products.

Domestic telecom gear makers, long established in emerging countries such as India and Africa, have made strides in past years into more mature markets.

ZTE said in July it had inked a deal to supply wireless equipment to Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 U.S. wireless firm, as it tries to broaden its toehold in Western markets.

ZTE's larger cross-town rival, Huawei Technologies, said in June that it had won a contract to help Vodafone expand its Spanish third-generation telecoms network.

In March, ZTE scored its first infrastructure equipment deal in Britain and it won a deal with Nepal Telecom in July.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) is the dominant second-generation mobile phone standard for most of the world. The other is CDMA.