ZTE to buy $3 bn in gear from TI, Qualcomm

HONG KONG, CHINA: China's No. 2 telecoms equipment maker ZTE Corp plans to buy $3 billion worth of gear from U.S. vendors such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, as it tries to boost its presence in the world's biggest economy.

The money will be spent over the next three years and will be used to show ZTE's commitment to the U.S. market, the company said in a statement released late on Monday in the United States.

"We are keen to deepen our relationships with both U.S. suppliers and telecom carriers in order to meet the needs of our U.S. customers and provide highly secure and innovative products and solutions," said ZTE's senior vice president Ye Weimin.

The investment comes as ZTE's crosstown rival Huawei Technologies has met with political hurdles in some of its recent bids to enter the United States.

Earlier this month, a group of U.S. lawmakers asked the Federal Communications Commission to detail any security risks from network equipment made by the two Chinese companies, both based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Besides the United States, the European Commission has also opened an investigation into Chinese subsidies for wireless modems made by the two companies, which critics say give ZTE and Huawei an unfair competitive advantage.

ZTE said in its statement it has paid more than $4 billion to buy intellectual property and hardware products from U.S. vendors in the past.