The history of ZTE ZTE: nosy Chinese inventors

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On the Russian market, an ordinary consumer knows about ZTE most likely only as a company that produces smartphones. To a more advanced user, ZTE may be known as one of the leading manufacturers of communications equipment, but even he does not fully understand the scope of the company.

It’s worth starting at least with the fact that in the same Shenzhen, ZTE does not have its own office or a separate floor in a business center, they own the whole building! 35 floors are occupied by the company's employees, and its CEO sits on the last. This fact alone allows us to judge the scale of activity.

Another example is the number of partners. Look at this presentation slide, it looks pretty impressive. Attentive users will find Russian operators there as well.

What is produced?

The second floor of the skyscraper is reserved for an introductory museum, which displays examples of most of the products that ZTE creates. It is clear that we will not mention smartphones, you already know about them, but it was interesting to see what else was there.

The first thing that caught my attention was my own drone with a portable hotspot that expands the coverage of one or another operator. If you remember, at the moment there are special cars with such points, but the solution with a drone is much more progressive.

The company is also engaged in the creation of base stations. Given the ever-increasing demands of operators, ZTE should always have several models in stock in different designs and with different dimensions.

The topic of 5G is very popular now, for the development of which ZTE has already received several awards. By the way, full launch 5G is planned for 2020.

By the way, in Shenzhen there are a lot of electric cars, not hybrids, but full-fledged electric trains. Especially for them, ZTE developed wireless charging. You just park in a special place, and that's it, the car is charged. It is interesting that in the future they plan to exploit this topic, and they want to make similar platforms for electric buses at each stop. In fact, the bus would be recharged at every station.

The company's plans are truly global. They are limited not by the smart home, but by the smart city. Take at least the subway. ZTE came up with a system for monitoring passengers using video cameras, as well as monitoring population density. In the future, this would help to avoid the metro during rush hour and use other transport.

And there are many such examples.

How are they tested?

I think that many of you have heard that devices undergo various tests in the company's laboratories before they are sent to store shelves, ZTE is no exception to the rule. Below I will show you what tests they use.

Let's start with the camera. The quality of pictures is regulated by how colors distort under different lighting conditions, whether the picture complies with the sRGB standard, how clearly it photographs fine lines and other elements.

The next parameter for the test is the SAR value. The smartphone is smeared with a special gel and based on it, the readings of the SAR counters are evaluated, how they change in different usage scenarios.

To test the buttons, there are special "pressers", each device is tested with 5000 clicks. In another picture, the clamshell opening mechanism is tested and how it breaks down with frequent opening and closing.

This design resembles a centrifuge, the devices in it constantly fall and knock on the walls of the chamber, this is done to test the impact resistance.

This camera is designed to test the radio signal and voice quality (and GPS quality). It is checked how speech worsens, for example, with poor reception.

This container can be either a refrigerator or a stove for a smartphone, this was done to evaluate the operation of the device in various temperature conditions.

With help computer program user actions are simulated and the smartphone's reaction to them is evaluated. Did you react quickly? Were there any slowdowns?

I was very impressed by the various number of tests, to be honest, I had not really thought about how carefully certain companies test their models before.

How are they collected?

This was the most interesting part of the tour, but we were not allowed to photograph anything in that area. I cannot convey to you my disappointment with this decision of the company, because it is in the assembly shop that visibility is needed more than ever. Below I will talk about what is happening in this workshop, and I apologize for the lack of photos.

Before entering the workshop, you put on special slippers, a hat and a robe, and then pass through the cleaning chambers. In fact, all the dust particles are blown off you so that, God forbid, they do not get into production.

The workshop consists of several rows of 20-30 meters each. On the same row, there is a sequential assembly of one smartphone model. It all starts with creation printed circuit board. The speed of the device is simply mesmerizing, you can get stuck for five minutes only at this point.

Finished boards are first checked by a computer, and then by employees. We discussed with colleagues how effective such a manual check is, because attentiveness is dulled by monotonous work. However, they noted that with such a recheck, people already have an image of the correct board, and the slightest deviation from it will instantly resonate in the brain, that is, they will immediately notice the error.

The automated part of the work is, of course, very impressive. Here is one machine that places small parts with surgical precision, another makes the same small cutouts in the body, the third simply transports parts from one part of the production to another.

About 50% of the assembly is done by people, as a rule, already at the stage of assembling the hull and bundling. All movements are perfected to automatism. All employees work behind the line while standing. However, every two hours they are entitled to a 15-minute break. If someone needs to go to the toilet, then the person is replaced by the shift supervisor, who knows how to do all parts of the assembly on the line. An ordinary assembler cannot do this, so all stages are tightly regulated.

I have long been interested in who is engaged in gluing films and neatly wrapping cables with headphones, a machine or a person. Films are first glued by people, then smartphones pass under a special automated press so that there are no bubbles. But ZTE buys accessories from suppliers, so cable wrapping remains a mystery. Colleagues said that people also do this operation at some plants.

As for salaries, pickers receive 5,000 yuan per month (50,000 rubles), they are paid meals and housing on campus. In my opinion, this is good money, I expected a smaller amount.

The workshop itself made a purely positive impression, everything is clean, tidy and put on stream. You can only complain about the inability to photograph all this.

Conclusion

A visit to the workshop and headquarters makes you feel completely different about the company and its products. You begin to understand what is behind each of the smartphones, for example. And, of course, it will be interesting to look at new devices in full reviews to evaluate how well their testing system performed.

Gadget manufacturers

ZTE Corporation is a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and related systems company. It operates within three main business units. The main products of the company include wireless and optical equipment, telecommunications equipment, mobile phones and telecommunications software. In addition, the firm offers related services.

ZTE is in the top five largest manufacturers smartphones in the domestic market of their country, and are also in tenth place in the world. They primarily sell products under their own name, with the exception of the OEM brand.

The future large corporation was founded in Shenzhen in 1985. It was named Zhongxing Semiconductor and was included in an investor group with the support of the Chinese Aerospace Ministry. In the early spring of 1993, the company's name was changed to Zhongxing NTE. It had a registered capital of 3 million yen. At the same time, a new business model of a “public and private operating” economic entity was created. Although connected to the government, the corporation (which soon became known as ZTE) took part in public auctions, listed shares on stock exchanges, and so on.

One of the founders of the company is Hu Weigu. Over the past few years, it is to this person that the merit of ZTE's exit from the shadow of its “big neighbor”, Huawei, belongs. The company was founded by Hu in 1985. Over time, it began to grow and transform, becoming one of the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications equipment, and later - and a leading consumer brand. By 2015, Zetee has become the No. 6 manufacturer cell phones in the world, and Hu Weigu hopes that in a few years she will already be in 3rd place. He himself says about it this way: “We still have to go through a long way».

Hu Weigu is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, very little is known about him. He also acts as an executive director of the corporation (since 2004). From 2001 to 2004, Hu was the president of ZTE Corporation. In 2009, he was awarded the Yuan Baohua Enterprise Management Gold Award.

While the company initially profited from domestic sales, it was also going to use the Hong Kong IPO funds to expand further. scientific research and development, establish overseas sales and trade cooperation with developed countries, supplying products for export. For promotion in the international telecommunications market in 2006, 40% of new global orders for CDMA networks were taken, thereby leading the world market for CDMA equipment in terms of the number of deliveries.

In the same year, the company found a client in the Canadian firm Telus and became a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Following Telus, she had other clients in developed countries. By 2007, ZTE collaborated with the British company Vodafone, the Spanish company Telefnica, the Australian company Telstra, and also enlisted largest number CDMA contracts worldwide. By 2008, the client base was already truly global; parallel sales were made to 140 countries.

In 2009, the company became the third largest supplier of GSM communication equipment worldwide (share was about 20%). In 2011, the world's first smartphone with dual GPS/GLONASS navigation, the MTS 945, was launched.

ZTE Company claims to spend 10% of its annual income annually on research and development, and is able to file patents and licenses at a frantic pace. She has filed 48,000 patents worldwide. More than 90% of them are related to inventions. For two consecutive years (2011 and 2012), ZTE filed a large number of patent applications worldwide, which was new for a Chinese company.

The company has a number of international branches. One of them, ZTE Indonesia, has been representing it for many years.

The Australian subsidiary entered the respective country market in 2005. By 2009, they were already the exclusive supplier of phones, network cards and other company products to customers such as Telstra in Australia. In 2005 a German branch was also established, headquartered in Düsseldorf.

The North American subsidiary is headquartered in Richardson, Texas. She offers various network solutions and works with wireless equipment.

The company also has a branch in Hong Kong (engaged in global contract manufacturing) and a subsidiary in Brazil (ZTE do Brasil Ltda.). The latter was founded in 2002; offices were opened in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. At the moment, the branch offers network solutions and mobile devices in the Brazilian market.

In 1999, the Pakistani branch of the company appeared. The headquarters was opened in Islamabad; also opened large offices in Lahore and Karachi. The branch began to provide telecommunications equipment, network solutions and related services to telecom operators in Pakistan.

Zetee operates in three main business segments. Roughly speaking, all products can also be divided into three main categories: equipment used by network operators, equipment for access networks (terminals) and services, including software. In the autumn of 2010, a single encryption module was received, making ZTE the first Chinese supplier to successfully test its products according to established standards.

The company is known as a manufacturer of various consumer electronics. Since 2012, it has become the fourth largest supplier of mobile phones. In addition, the company got into the top suppliers of IDC smartphones. The firm also manufactures tablets.

In 2014, at the mobile exhibition in Spain, Microsoft announced that ZTE is the largest partner of the platform.

The company acts as a supplier of the main network elements. Among them: MPLS routers, GSM/UMTS networks (LTE, CDMA, etc.), backbone and telephone switches, core routers, base stations, WiMax products, WAP and MMSC equipment, etc.

Many of the company's customers are located outside of China. During the 2000s, most of them were among the operators mobile communications developing countries, but soon ZTE products began to be in demand in developed countries. Canadian, Australian, French and other firms purchased equipment from this company. In addition, many Chinese organizations have also become ZTE customers (including Satcom, China Mobile, Unicom, and so on).

In the United States, the company manufactures mobile phones and broadband devices for several wireless carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, and others). It also acts as a network equipment vendor.

One of the world's largest mobile operators, Norwegian "giant" Telenor, banned ZTE from "participating in tenders and new business opportunities due to their alleged breach of a procurement code of conduct" for five months (until March 2009).

Another unfortunate incident involved the Philippine government. Due to suspicions of misconduct in the process of negotiating the construction of broadband access networks, this project was eventually canceled. At the same time, the Philippine National Broadband Network was accused of corruption in the deal in the United States. As a result, the contract was signed in the Chinese province in the spring of 2007. In October of the same year, the president decided to cancel the national broadband network project. Summer 2008 Supreme Court rejected all motions regarding doubts about the constitutionality of such a transaction due to the cancellation of the project.

In mid-spring 2007, the Philippine Department of Transportation and Communications entered into a contract with ZTE Vice President Yu Yong for a national broadband network capable of improving government communications capabilities. In September, a Senate investigation into the NBN project began. As a result, the three committees held joint hearings on the issue (including the Committee of Commerce and Industry and the Committee of National Defense and Security), which caused great public response. Be that as it may, in the end, the national broadband network project was canceled in October 2007 during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

In February 2008, a rally was held in the Makati CBD to protest against corruption. The protesters called for the resignation of President Arroyo. The demonstrators also included former presidents, Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrado. In total, there were about 15 thousand protesters.

In December 2010, ZTE sold telephone and Internet listening systems to an Iranian government company, allowing the state to monitor and track political dissidents. It also gave the company a not-so-great reputation. In 2012, US policymakers raised a number of other security concerns regarding ZTE and another Chinese manufacturer, Huawei.

By 2013, the company had established partnerships with more than five hundred mobile operators around the world. She supplied them with her equipment, including mobile devices. The company's sphere of influence extends to European and Asian countries, as well as Latin and North America.

In 2015, a smartphone running the Android system was released. The model was called Blade S6. The device turned out to be an eight-core processor at 1.3 gigahertz, 2 gigabytes of RAM and 16 gigabytes of internal memory, the main camera at 13 and front-camera at 5 megapixels. The smartphone also had map support microSD memory, GPS, Bluetooth and so on. The battery had a capacity of 2400 mAh.

In general, one could say about this device that it is a powerful device with large volume memory, excellent camera and display. In addition, he worked under latest version Android at the time of release. The smartphone was intended rather for the younger generation. Although not too different from all other mobile products on the market by 2015, ZTE has focused on music functionality and high speed. mobile Internet. In addition, the manufacturer paid attention to gesture control. Everything that usually attracts young people to modern gadgets, was presented in this model at the highest level. In addition, the user was offered a full-fledged multimedia functionality for a very reasonable cost.

The Blade S6 also features a new generation processor. True, it was only partially possible to call it a real eight-core processor, since it was composed of four cores for 1 gigagarets and four for 1.8. If the user plays games or opens large programs, the device "overclocks". In the event that, for example, they simply open a browser, 1 gigahertz cores are involved. Well, RAM helps maintain performance.

A year earlier, another notable Android-based mobile device from the Blade line appeared - the Vec 4G model. The smartphone had weaker, but still good characteristics at the time of release: a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM and 16 gigabytes of internal memory, a 13-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel front camera, support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G , memory cards and so on. The battery was rated at 2300 mAh.

The company's equally well-known line of smartphones is Geek. In 2013, the Geek V975 comes out, also running Android.

The smartphone was equipped with a dual-core 2 GHz processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM and 8 gigabytes of permanent memory, Bluetooth interfaces and Wi-Fi, support for memory cards, GPS chip and so on. The battery had a capacity of 2300 mAh. There was also an 8-megapixel main camera and a 1-megapixel front camera.

The history of ZTE began in 1985 when Zhongxing Semiconductor Co., Ltd. was founded in the Shenzhen Free Economic Zone. with a registered capital of 2.8 million yuan. Initially, the company was created to solve problems related to the provision of the Chinese army (in particular, the aerospace department) with communications and other electronics. However, ZTE is still fulfilling government orders, and its controlling stake (about 52%) has remained in the hands of the Chinese government.

Initially, ZTE's civilian products included electronic watches, wired telephones and other relatively simple consumer electronics. The company also willingly took on the implementation of third-party orders. ZTE's own research and development (R&D) department appeared in the summer of 1986, and its staff was only 8 people.

The first project of the newly minted research center was the development of a 68-channel analog PBX(Private Branch eXchange). In June 1987, ZTE's ZX-60 telephone exchange, controlled by an embedded computer (Stored Program Controlled), was certified by the Chinese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Actually, it was this product that became ZTE's first step in the telecommunications industry.

Then, in the second half of 1987, the company began research in the field of digital telephone exchanges. For China in those years, this was one of the important areas, since the country did not have its own developments in this area, and the few digital exchanges used in China were imported from abroad. In fact, the company had to start from scratch (although doubt careful analysis there is no existing world experience), but by November 1989, the ZX500, a 500-line digital PBX, was developed and certified, becoming the first Chinese digital PBX that did not use intellectual property owned by foreign manufacturers. Mass production of an optimized version of the ZX500 started in March 1990.

In December 1992, the ZX500A was released, a low-capacity carrier digital exchange designed for installation in rural areas and office centers. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this event - the appearance of the ZX500A and the successful experience of its operation in the telephone networks of the Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces literally led to a boom in the installation of telephones in Chinese villages, and for ZTE they became a support for further development.

Own modern name— Zhongxing New Telecommunication Equipment Co., Ltd. - ZTE received in March 1993, and the registered capital of the new company amounted to 3 million yuan. As in the case of Zhongxing Semiconductor Co., Ltd., the company was built on the principle of "state-owned and private-run", which implies the combination of public and private interests.

The first achievement under the new name was the release in November 1993 of the digital exchange ZXJ2000, awarded the title of "National New Product of 1994" in China and the "Innovative Scientific Star" award, awarded by the Chinese branch of the UN Technological Information Promotion System.

Simultaneously with the launch of the ZXJ2000, the ZTE Research Center began work on a digital PBX with a capacity of 2.5 thousand subscribers, designed for private users. The product, named ZXJ2000A, was certified in May 1994, and its appearance gave the green light to build telephone networks medium and large enterprises, hotels, railways and government institutions.

In September 1993, the company established a research institute in Nanjing, which engaged in the development of large-capacity digital exchanges - in November 1995, ZXJ10 was certified, the capacity of which was 170,000 subscribers. According to officials from the Chinese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the ZXJ10 has become "the best world-class model, not inferior to its counterparts in the 1990s."

In August 1994, ZTE established a research and development institute in Shanghai focused on wireless products and devices for accessing information networks. Moreover, the network products developed at this institute have earned the unanimous praise of a group of experts from the Directorate General for Telecommunications and Post and have been described as "leading in China in terms of the use of modern technologies."

In 1995, ZTE became the first Chinese manufacturer who have received ISO9001 quality management system certification. In fact, this certification opened the way for the company to the world market as a supplier of telecommunications equipment.

In February 1996, ZTE put forward the concept of "three directions", which outlined the development plan communication networks China. The first direction was the development of only complex products, including the necessary operator and subscriber equipment. The second direction is providing communications for the needs of the domestic market, including rural areas. The third priority direction of development was the entry into foreign markets. By 1996, ZTE entered the top 300 Chinese companies, and the value of its assets exceeded $400 million.

ZTE's first public offering on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange took place in November 1997, making ZTE the first publicly traded Chinese telecommunications company. The IPO went well, rising from a starting price of 6.81 yuan per share on the first day of trading to 21.81 yuan. Later, the company was also quite successful in issuing its shares. For example, in March 2001, ZTE placed 50 million additional shares, earning 1.6 billion yuan. The annual growth of the company in 2001 and 2002 was about 30%. ZTE shares appeared on the Hong Kong stock exchange in December 2004. Generally speaking, according to Western experts, ZTE in the late 90s and early 00s became one of the leading Chinese companies in terms of reputation and investor interest. Most of the proceeds from the offering of shares were directed to research and development.

But back to the company's products. The first major foreign contract for ZTE was the supply of telecommunications equipment to Pakistan in the amount of $95 million. Moreover, this was the first major international project not only for ZTE, but for the entire Chinese telecommunications industry. A year later, in 1999, ZTE opened its first international office in Islamabad, Pakistan. Also in 1999, a contract was signed for the supply of the ZTE ZXMVC3000 video conferencing system to Kenya. The steady growth in the number of international contracts ZTE began in 2003, when she managed to win tenders for the supply of CDMA equipment for major operators in India and Algeria. In addition, in 1998, the company began opening R&D centers outside of China. For example, the American R&D Institute ZTE took up work related to software and CDMA2000 technology.

No less important were the years 1998-1999 for strengthening ZTE's position in the domestic Chinese market. First, the company launched the ZTE189, China's first dual-band phone, with all intellectual property rights used in its development owned by China. Secondly, the company signed its first contract with the Chinese operator China Telecom.

In 2000, ZTE introduced the world's first CDMA phone with a removable SIM card, but subscriber devices for ZTE turned into a strategically important product in 2002. But in 2001, the company successfully tested its own CDMA2000 1x base station and began construction of the first in China CDMA network (capacity 1.1 million subscribers, China Unicom operator).

In the same year, ZTE entered the top 50 Chinese companies with the greatest growth potential. And she justified the trust. In 2002, in partnership with the Chinese division of Intel, ZTE began work on CDMA and UMTS 3G equipment, and in 2004, it was noted at the 2004 Olympics as a supplier of equipment for 16 Olympic venues. Also in 2004, the first commercial 3G call was made in Africa (via ZTE equipment in the UMTS network of Tunisia). By 2005, ZTE equipment operated in 3G networks in 10 European countries, and in the domestic market, ZTE became the largest supplier wireless equipment. By this time, according to BusinessWeek, the company entered the world's "TOP-100" companies operating in the field of information technology.

In 2006, the course towards business internationalization was continued - ZTE reorganized its corporate structure and signed two major international contracts for the supply of subscriber equipment. ZTE's partners are Telus (the second largest Canadian mobile operator) and France Telecom. In 2007, many leading operators, including Vodafone, Telefonica and Hutchison, joined the list of international partners purchasing ZTE subscriber equipment. No less noticeable were the successes in the market of operator equipment - according to the results of 2006-2007, the company became number 1 in the supply of CDMA equipment and entered the TOP-4 suppliers of equipment for GSM networks. In 2007, ZTE's international contract revenue accounted for 60% of the company's total revenue, surpassing domestic revenue for the first time. By the way, this does not mean at all that the company focused exclusively on foreign projects - in the domestic market, it accounted for 51% of the contract for the purchase of TD-SCDMA equipment for China Mobile.

The figures for 2008 are even more impressive. ZTE equipment and terminals are used by 51 of the 100 largest world operators, cooperation agreements have been signed with Vodafone (including the supply of operator equipment), and in terms of shipments of subscriber devices, the company has taken 6th place in the world.

In 2009, ZTE introduced its own LTE solutions, announced the availability of equipment for HSPA+ (21 Mbps) networks, and began to actively work with Qualcomm to refine its systems-on-a-chip designed for WCDMA networks. In 2010, ZTE became the largest consumer equipment market in China (200 million terminals), deployed 7 commercial LTE networks and conducted more than 50 LTE network tests in Europe, North and South America, in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The domestic market is not forgotten either - ZTE is actively working on the development of TD-LTE networks, for which, back in 2010, at the Expo on Emerging Industries of Strategic Importance, it was separately noted by Chinese President Hu Jintao, who visited her booth. By the way, according to the results of 2011, ZTE President Shi Lirong was named one of the most influential leaders of Chinese companies.

If we talk about 2012, then for ZTE it was not particularly successful. Moreover, if in the first quarter a drop in profitability was recorded, then the third ended with a loss of about $300 million. European market. However, 2013 should be a successful year for ZTE, and LTE networks should become the main locomotive. In particular, the largest Chinese operator China Mobile is starting to build its own LTE network. The number of orders for LTE equipment and mobile devices supporting this technology is also growing. Moreover, the latest announcements of this manufacturer, in particular Nubia Z5 and Grand Era LTE, are quite interesting. Grand Era LTE supports two different 4G LTE mobile data standards: TD-LTE / LTE FDD.

The share of ZTE in the global mobile phone market is about 6%, which allows it to hold the 4th place, behind only Samsung, Nokia and Apple. If we talk about the smartphone market, then the figures are less impressive - the company is still inferior to the Taiwanese HTC and the Finnish Nokia, which has lost its influence. Main software platform ZTE smartphones- Android OS.

But, 2013 may well become a turning point, especially since the company began to actively work on recognizing its brand outside of China. In particular, ZTE products under its own brand are already found not only in the Russian market.

However, all the same, ZTE products in our country are better known as operator devices. This is for now. In particular, it was ZTE that was engaged in the release of the “Russian analogue of the iPhone” - MTS 945, which appeared in early spring 2011. The smartphone fulfilled its task, acting for Qualcomm as a platform for testing GLONASS support in its systems based on the MSM7230 chipset. Actually, it was this experimentalism that explained the excessively inflated price of the device on the windows of communication stores. But now the situation is changing significantly. Work with operators is gaining momentum, and the activity of the ZTE brand is in full swing. The market share of smartphones under the ZTE brand is growing by leaps and bounds. More on this later.

Company owners

China owns 51.8%, 31.5% is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and 16.7% is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Participation in companies

ZTE is actively involved in many international organizations such as ITU (International Telecommunication Union), AIC (Asian Infocommunication Council), CCSA (China Communications Standards Association), 3G Association, 3GPP, 3GPP2, CDG (CDMA Development Group) , International 450 Association, OMA (Open Mobile Alliance), IPV6 Forum, DSL Forum, WiMAX forum, WiFi, OBSAI (Open Base Station Architecture Initiative), NV-IOT (Network Vendors Interoperability Testing Forum), etc.

ZTE in Russia

Since 2000, the corporation has been successfully developing in the Russian market. In this regard, an official representative office of ZTE was opened in Moscow. In Russia, the company presents a wide range of modern smartphones and in parallel, it works as an OEM manufacturer, supplying many models of smartphones that Russian mobile operators can sell under their own brands. Thus, the company actively cooperates with the Big Three companies and other Russian operators: MTS 236, MTS 535, MTS 547, MTS Business 840, MTS 916, MTS Glonass 945 (based on ZTE VF945), Beeline A100, MegaFon V9+ and others. In December 2010, ZTE released a branded Tablet PC Beeline M2 for the Russian mobile operator OJSC VimpelCom, developed on the basis of ZTE Light's own device. In August 2011, Beeline announced the release of a new smartphone - Beeline e400, aka ZTE Blade. And already in 2015, Beeline PRO and MTS Smart went on sale.

The Russian market for ZTE is very promising and fast growing. Especially now, at the present time, the company is developing especially strongly and offers the Russian market many interesting and worthy models at an objective price. In addition to active retail expansion throughout Russia, the company is actively developing its educational function - seminars, trainings, as well as participation in student forums. From year to year, the company offers more and more great smartphones in different price ranges. Naturally, promising technologies are developing - almost half of everything model range, which is offered for Russia, these are dual-sim smartphones and one SIM card is necessarily 4G LTE. Other options are also on top - high-quality 2.5D displays, cameras with professional brands, top-notch processors, Hi-Fi sound, decent body materials and durable alloys for the frame, and much more innovative.

The Chinese company ZTE was founded in 1985, although even now it can hardly be called well-known on the Russian market. In 2011, it was the second largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and mobile phones in China. It is listed on the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and is part of the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index.

In addition, ZTE has 13 R&D centers in China, the United States, Sweden and Korea, on which it spends 10% of its annual income, and is a partner of Intel, Microsoft, IBM and Qualcomm.

China owns 51.8% of ZTE's shares, which means that the country's authorities monitor the quality of products.

In 1985, a group of investors, together with the Ministry of Aerospace Industry of the People's Republic of China, founded Zhongxing Semiconductor Co., Ltd in Shenzhen, where the company still remains headquartered. In March 1993, the name was changed to Zhongxing New Telecommunications Equipment Co., Ltd ... ZTE received its current name later.

In 1997, it placed shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Seven years later, she entered the listing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company earned most of its profits in the domestic market, but in 2004 it directed the money received from the placement of shares to R&D in order to enter the global market. In 2006, ZTE took 40% of all new orders for CDMA equipment, leading the global market in this industry. Among the company's clients was the Canadian state telecommunications company Telus, and ZTE itself entered the Wi-Fi Alliance.

In 2007, ZTE sold equipment to British Vodafone, Spanish Telefonica, and Australian Telstra. In 2008, ZTE customers were in 140 countries.

In 2009, ZTE moved into third place in the list of GSM equipment vendors, and 20% of all this equipment sold in the world had the company's logo.

An interesting fact: the first smartphone with GPS / GLONASS on board was released by ZTE under the name MTS Glonass 945.

ZTE says it spends 10% of its annual income on R&D. The company's research centers operate in several countries, and in total the company has more than 48,000 patent applications and 13,000 patents. In 2011 and 2012, ZTE received more patents than any other company. This company is one of the largest manufacturers of telecommunications equipment in the world, but it is also a manufacturer of smartphones.

In the 3rd quarter of 2015, according to Gartner, ZTE sold 13.7 million smartphones and took 9th place in the world ranking of manufacturers, grabbing 2.9% of the global market.

On the Russian market the company came out about five years ago, but then it was phones branded by a cellular operator. And now the company offers a number of budget phones and one powerful ZTE Axon Mini. The fact is that a year ago Russia was not considered as a market where premium smartphones, the company's flagships, should be sold. Instead, they preferred to sell state employees and middle peasants.

ZTE spends huge sums on R&D for good reason. They were the first to introduce an eye recognition system into a serial smartphone - in the ZTE Grand S3. This system only needs a 1-megapixel front camera, so it does not make the phone more expensive.

I myself tested several budget and mid-priced ZTE smartphones - Blade S6, Grand S2, very cheap Blade AF3, Blade V2 Lite. Yes, some had an ancient screen, but the build quality and overall impression were always positive.

At IFA 2015 in Berlin, I touched the latest from ZTE, including the Axon Elite, a great flagship from a company that has experience in telecommunications equipment. So I can safely recommend gadgets from this manufacturer.

K:Companies founded in 1985

About company

The company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1997, and has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since December 2004. Included in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index.

ZTE has 13 R&D centers in China, USA, Sweden and Korea. More than 10% of ZTE's annual income is allocated to R&D. The company has partnerships among major international companies such as: Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Alcatel, Qualcomm, Analog Devices, Accenture, Texas Instruments, Freescale, Agere Systems, and ADI.

ZTE has 1863 international patent applications registered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (as of December 31, 2010) . The corporation has filed a total of over 33,000 international patent applications, making it one of the major patent holders in the communications industry.

The company develops and manufactures telecommunications equipment for PSTN networks, mobile networks, optical networks, data networks, smart networks () and next generation networks (NGN).

More than 85 thousand employees (for 2010) work in the company.

According to the results of 2010, according to IDC, the company took the 4th place among the largest manufacturers in the mobile phone market (in unit terms).

Company owners

China owns 51.8%, 31.5% is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and 16.7% is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Participation in telecommunications organizations

ZTE is actively involved in many international organizations such as ITU (International Telecommunication Union), AIC (Asian Infocommunication Council), CCSA (China Communications Standards Association), 3G Association, 3GPP, 3GPP2, CDG (CDMA Development Group) , International 450 Association , OMA (Open Mobile Alliance), IPV6 Forum, DSL Forum, WiMAX forum, WiFi , OBSAI (Open Base Station Architecture Initiative), NV-IOT (Network Vendors Interoperability Testing Forum), etc.

ZTE in Russia

In February 2012, ZTE representative in Russia Ding Haoming announced the suspension of production of ZTE smartphones with GLONASS support. Currently (2016) secondary and higher devices price segment support GLONASS. .