ZTE to be one of top three GSM vendors

SHENZHEN, CHINA: ZTE Corporation, ZTE, a provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, will be one of the top three global GSM vendors in newly added markets in 2009.

This is according to industry research firm, Frost & Sullivan's latest report, 'Global GSM Market Analysis'.

According to the report, GSM and UMTS are still dominating the global mobile communications market, accounting for 83.5 percent of global mobile communications subscribers. GSM shipments attained a high level of 3.5 million carrier frequencies in 2008, with the slight slow-down from 2007 being largely attributed to the global financial crisis and 3G market growth.

In terms of all new carrier frequency shipments, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia-Siemens, ZTE and Alcatel-Lucent accounted for 31 percent, 27 percent, 16 percent, 15 percent and nine percent of the global market respectively in 2008, while the remaining vendors took up two percent of the market share.

Statistics indicate that despite a slowdown in GSM network establishments in the worldwide market, ZTE has nevertheless registered fast GSM shipment growth for three consecutive years.

With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 120 percent in the past three years, ZTE’s GSM equipment shipments have been the fastest amongst industry players. The report predicts that ZTE will overtake Nokia-Siemens to become one of the top-three global GSM equipment vendors in 2009. Nokia-Siemens’ market share fell significantly from its high of 35 percent of the global market to 16 percent in 2008.

The report additionally forecasts that if the current trend continues, ZTE will gradually become the mainstream vendors in the global wireless communications market in recognition of its advantages like localization, customized innovations and low cost.