ZTE, the China-based telecom equipment maker revealed its plans to invest $20 million (about Rs 88 crore) in value added services for the Indian market.
ZTE's VAS brand AnyService delivers many applications such as location based services, mobile newspaper (which is very popular in China), enterprise and messaging services, voice applications etc. With 3G on the horizon, ZTE believes the scope of content that can be provided to be huge.
Lu A Bin, vice president, ZTE Corporation, told Telecom Yatra that India accounted for one-tenth of ZTE's VAS revenue in 2009. He added, "Although we are not generating large revenue from India currently, we do see a huge potential for VAS in India and will continue to invest here." He believes that it has become essential for operators to focus on VAS to generate revenue.
ZTE is currently working with operators such as BSNL, Sistema Shyam Teleservices and Bharti Airtel in Delhi, and Tata Teleservices and Idea in Mumbai to provide value added services. The company is also in talks with some operators for providing 3G VAS services depending on which operators win the ongoing bids for 3G spectrum. ZTE is also a major vendor for global operators such as France Telecom, Spain-based Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom.
The telecom equipment giant currently has an R&D centre in India, located in Bangalore. The company has said that it is not thinking about setting up more R&D centers here. However, it will focus on making the Bangalore center stronger. Globally, it just finished work on its R&D center in Paris and is planning two new R&D centers in USA.
ZTE is a global provider of telecommunication equipment and network solutions. In 2009, ZTE earnings boosted by 48 per cent, making it the number one telecom equipment maker in the Chinese market, owing to the heavy spending on network roll-outs by Chinese operators last year. The company's net profit for 2009 rose to $360 million. It started its operations in India in 1999 and is currently working with almost all major operators here.
