ZTE sees healthy sales growth in 2010

BARCELONA, SPAIN: Chinese telecoms equipment and phone maker ZTE sees healthy demand for its wireless handsets and data cards to continue this year and expects subscriber growth for its TD-SCDMA cellphones to increase by 500 percent.

"In 2009, sales of ZTE terminals grew by more than 40 percent compared with 2008 and we want to keep growth around that figure this year too," He Shiyou, Executive Vice President of ZTE, told Reuters in an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"Unit sales surpassed 60 million last year and this year we may surpass 80 million," he continued.

ZTE, China's second biggest maker of telecoms equipment, offers handsets and data cards. It has benefited from an export boost and increased spending in its home market.

China is the world's largest mobile communications market with over 600 million Chinese people subscribed to mobile communications services.

In China, He said, some 3 million subscribers chose ZTE TD-SCDMA handsets last year.

The handsets run on a 3G network based on a homegrown technology known as TD-SCDMA, which is being constructed by China Mobile.

"Subscribers will grow next year to more than 18 million," he said.

The technology has so far not been used on a large scale in countries other than China.

He said outside of China TD-SCDMA technology was "still in promotion" and that the main focus was on distribution in Latin America and Africa.

"Suppliers are interested and have opened trials in Ghana, Egypt and Korea," he said.

ZTE also sells solar-powered handsets, which it introduced at Barcelona last year. Since then it has sold 500,000 He said.

"Mainly to Kenya but also in central America and the south-eastern Pacific region," He added.

He said ZTE aims to reach number three position in the data products market. It currently has a market share of 35 percent.

Asked if ZTE, which competes with domestic rival Huawei, would look at acquisitions to grow, He said that "anything is possible and we will catch all possibilities".

Both Huawei and ZTE have had an organic growth strategy, shunning acquisitions in favour of a build-it-themselves approach.