Indicom, China's ZTE ink deal

TELECOM SIGNALS GET STRONGER

Tata Indicom is gearing up for a big technological leap by entering into an agreement with China's largest telecommunications equipment maker, ZTE Corporation.

According to the contours of the agreement, ZTE would build a countrywide CDMA 2000 network for Tata Indicom in the next three years.

A key component of CDMA 2000 is its ability to support the demands of advanced 3G services such as multimedia and other internet protocol (IP)-based services.

The move was also in sync with ZTE's philosophy of focusing on the international market. ZTE's diversified products such as WCDMA (wideband CDMA), CDMA, NGN (next generation networks), GSM, switching, access and optical transmission have entered into more than 60 countries and regions.

A senior Tata Indicom official said that a formal announcement would be made by both the companies at an appropriate time. He, however, said that the company was contemplating a relationship with ZTE for CDMA 2000, which supports 3G network.

Industry sources said that currently there was no spectrum allowed for 3G network and the licencing conditions were not clear. With contract sales in excess of $4 billion, ZTE is China's largest listed telecommunication equipment maker.

In China Unicom's CDMA network construction project, ZTE's mainstream products were used in 18 provinces. To date, ZTE has been the only Chinese vendor with complete package of independently developed base stations and switching systems with self-owned brands.

By 2004 end, the wireless capacity of ZTE CDMA equipment had exceeded 20 million lines making ZTE the biggest telecommunications equipment exporter in China.

As far as ZTE was concerned, it planned to attract talents from across the world in a bid to attach more importance to the international market.