From 2G to 3G, Huawei and ZTE, two big Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturers on the path towards international operations, have focused on developing countries while maintaining a discrete presence in European and American markets, where international telecoms facilities giants exercise superiority. But the growing large-scale commercial use of the 4th kind of 3G standard, WiMAX, in developed countries will provide an excellent opportunity for them, although one full of challenge. 

Sprint, the third largest telecoms operator in the US, on September 29 officially opened the first commercial WiMAX network in the US city of Baltimore, and is forming a joint venture company with former competitor Clearwire, to be called Clearwire, with investment from  Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner, to deploy WiMAX networks in developed countries.
 
ZTE, a core strategy partner of Sprint, now reveals that models of the WiMAX 16e terminal that it has developed by itself hit the market on October 15 in the US.
 
WiMAX service can satisfy the wide band wireless connection of an entire city of users. This technology was officially recognized as the 4th kind of global 3G standard in October 19, 2007 and its rivals include other 3G standards and one 4G technology, LTE. But after a short period of development, WiMAX fell in popularity.
 
Although the commercial prospects of WiMAX are not optimistic at present, Huawei and ZTE, have become important members in the WiMAX camp. ZTE was the first domestic firm to join the WiMAX forum. Although Huawei started late, the number of its WiMAX engineers could reach 2000 by the end of this year.
 
On September 18, president of the global WiMAX forum Ron Resnick said “there are currently more than 300 WiMAX network deployments in 118 countries or areas, and probably some 4 million use WiMAX technology to log onto the internet. In 2012, the number of WiMAX users in the world will reach 133 million, and 138 networks will be deployed in more than 200 countries or areas.”
 
Although insiders are optimistic about the potential of WiMAX market, Nortel disclosed on June 11 that it would reduce its investment in WiMAX, and invest more in LTE, which is more popular with mainstream telecoms operators. From the beginning of this year, Motorola has also started reducing its WiMAX research.
 
As for the withdrawal of Nortel and Motorola, Zhao Ming, president of Huawei’s WiMAX and CDMA product line, says that “each kind of technological development has a process, and it goes through different phases of experimentation, down-to-earth practice, and large-scale development.” As WiMAX enters the down-to-earth practice stage, it is unsurprising that some enterprises with unsatisfying achievement reduce their expenditure. Besides which, and the financial crisis is also having an impact on the international giants. 
 
Huang Jie, general manager of telecommunication for Intel China, believes that WiMAX is a golden opportunity for Chinese telecoms manufacturing to move out into the world. In the next 1-2 years, Huawei and ZTE will play a pivotal role in WiMAX manufacturing.
 
Through the first half of 2008, Hua Wei has obtained 29 orders for WiMAX commercial network and 35 orders for WiMAX test network. WiMAX also became an important breakthrough for the international strategy of ZTE, which last year signed a WiMAX supply agreement worth $100 million with Sprint, so ZTE has entered North America market in a big way through WiMAX.
 

Source:chinastakes