Chinese firm ZTE has announced that it has signed agreements with five major American technology companies (Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Freescale, ALTERA, and Broadcom) that total roughly $3 billion over the next three years. This commitment to American companies is one way the Chinese are trying to penetrate the market and ease concerns that some government officials have with depending on foreign owned entities to build the infrastructure that will power America’s future economic growth. Both ZTE and Huawei are running into brick walls thanks to paranoid people in Washington who are still stuck in the Cold War era, except today the former USSR is now China.
ZTE prides themselves on spending 10% of their revenue on research and development, allowing them to keep up with the likes of Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks when it comes to building the next generation of awesome hardware. Verizon’s recently launched Fivespot, a device that acts as a WiFi hotspot for up to 5 different pieces of hardware, was made by ZTE and it’s noteworthy because it supports both GSM and CDMA networks, plus it’s one of the smallest units in the portable hotpot product category. ZTE is also publicly traded, with almost 19% of the company being owned by European and American investors, so it isn’t interested in screwing up relations with foreign nations.
Operators around the world are going to be upgrading their networks en masse over the next few years. Whether they upgrade to the latest 3G and 4G technologies, or simply add capacity due to the sharp rise of smartphone users, the people who supply key network components are due for a sharp increase in business. Is it any wonder then why this little bit of news is making headlines, and why it was vital for Nokia Siemens Networks to purchase Motorola’s Networking division earlier this year?
[Via: Phone Scoop]