Growing Global Importance of China's Network Industry

From ITworld: Bullish on China

"In recent years, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., China's largest telecom equipment provider, has been seen as a rising threat to established telecom equipment makers.

However, most of the company's successes have been in developing countries, where cost was often considered the principal factor when choosing an equipment supplier. That all changed in April, when the U.K.'s BT Group PLC chose Huawei as one of eight suppliers for its ambitious 21st Century Network."

"The deal underscores the growing global importance of China's network industry. In recent years, Huawei and ZTE Corp., another Chinese telecom equipment maker, have won a number of contracts in emerging markets. Such deals helped to more than double Huawei's international revenue in 2004 to $2.3 billion, while ZTE saw its international sales jump nearly threefold to $1.6 billion."

"While Chinese companies are not expected by most industry watchers to have much impact anytime soon on the fiercely competitive North American enterprise or carrier markets, the growing strength of these equipment makers will inevitably impact how key U.S. suppliers operate. This already has been seen to some extent, with 3Com Corp. forging a joint venture with Huawei and Cisco Systems Inc. taking the Chinese company to court over patent infringement."