Highlights of ZTE´s GoTa Development Strategy

In the November of 2004, the Ministry of Information Industry of China issued the "General Technical Requirements for CDMA Digital Trunking" and formally established a technical standard for the Chinese digital trunking communication industry.

  As a well-known vendor in the global digital trunking communications field, ZTE Corporation has successfully transformed its multiple patented technologies into industry standards. These technologies are adopted for trunking intelligent network, trunking positioning, trunking short message, etc. Thus it is seen that ZTE’s GoTa system, a CDMA-based digital trunking system, has attained government authority’s approval.

1 GoTa—a World Leader in Digital Trunking System
Digital trunking communication technology is an important part of radio communications. In addition to ordinary voice, the technology provides dispatching functions such as group call, fast connection, etc. Recently, as communications technology evolved to digital communications, many special user groups like governments, logistics, and commanding & dispatching organizations continually set higher demands for the connection time, reliability and security of the communication networks. Driven by such requirements, a large-scale digital trunking market has come into being. For instance, there are 8-9 million potential subscribers in China requiring digital trunking services. Later this year, subscribers for professional mobile networks will reach 30 million and the generated revenue is expected to reach RMB 50 billion.

  With Norway at the forefront, other developed countries in Europe such as Germany, Holland, Sweden and Denmark are all planning to build dedicated national security networks. Digital trunking communication will become one of the most important technologies, comparable to 3G, in the new round of communication network construction and the digital trunking market will be the focus of the new round of competition for winning contracts among telecom equipment vendors worldwide.

  As early as 1999, ZTE foresaw a promising market potential of digital trunking products and immediately began its research while forming an independent R&D strategy. In 2002, ZTE succeeded in developing its new-generation digital trunking communication system―GoTa (Global Open Trunking Architecture) with its own IPR. After a year of highly successful trials and tests, ZTE officially released its GoTa system in March 2004.

  ZTE’s GoTa system is the world’s first CDMA-based digital trunking product that leverages the advantages of CDMA2000, including high privacy, high spectrum efficiency, large capacity, multi-service support and easy deployment. Moreover, it supports a smooth transition to 3G, representing the development trend for future digital trunking technology. Based on the independent R&D, ZTE owns over 30 core patent technologies for its GoTa system, and has applied for patents to both national and international IPR organizations.

  In addition to GoTa, the other two commonly used digital trunking systems are European TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) and American iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network), which are based on 2G mobile communication technologies. In contrast, ZTE’s 3G based GoTa has distinct advantages over the other two. It can be applied to both private and public radio trunking networks, and it can particularly attract a huge number of subscribers when delivered with value-added services bringing extra advantages. Also, it can meet the requirement for large scale networking with low investment, low network operation costs and fast service provisioning. Therefore, today GoTa is the most advanced and competitive digital trunking technology in a world and it shows vast market potential.

  Communication experts agree that the launch of ZTE’s GoTa system is of great significance in launching the truly international pedigree of China’s telecommunication manufacturing industry. It is the first time that a Chinese enterprise has put forward globally a digital trunking communication system with independent IPR and indicates that ZTE has the capability to match foreign vendors on a truly global scale.

2 GoTa Taps Global Market
The launch of worldwide leading products is merely one step in ZTE’s long march to an aggressive global strategy. The most important thing, however, is to translate the products into market competitiveness. To market the GoTa system, ZTE will firstly rely on the sales team for its CDMA products, which have been widely deployed all over the world.
  ZTE is already the largest among Chinese CDMA equipment vendors, with the most lines of equipment sold overseas. In the China market, ZTE was the biggest winner while bidding for China Unicom’s Phase I, II and III CDMA network construction during 2001-2003, with its CDMA infrastructure equipment penetrating into 17 provincial branches of China Unicom and capturing over 18% market share. To date, ZTE has deployed its CDMA products in over 30 countries such as Russia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others, with the total capacity exceeding 18 million lines. Leveraging its leading CDMA position, ZTE is getting the upper hand in promoting GoTa applications worldwide.

  In a joint effort with China Railway Communications and China Satellite Communications, ZTE has launched GoTa trials in several Chinese cities such as Shenyang and Jinan to accelerate the commercial use in China as soon as possible.

  On the eve of the 2004 National day, Lou Qinjian, Vice Minister of Ministry of Information Industry of China, went to Jinan for a special visit to see the GoTa trial jointly constructed by ZTE and China Satellite Communications. After a demonstration of related GoTa services, Mr. Lou said that he hoped that ZTE, on behalf of Chinese enterprises, could take more responsibilities and obligations in the future digital trunking industry of China and promote a healthy development for the industry in going forward.

  At Beijing Telecom Exhibition 2004, Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister of China, visited the live demonstration of GoTa services that were jointly sponsored by ZTE, China Railway Communications, and China Satellite Communications. Premier Wen Jiabao was satisfied with the demonstration and expressed great expectations for ZTE’s self-developed GoTa digital trunking products.

  In addition, the overseas market is providing an arena for ZTE’s GoTa to show its impressive capabilities. At the beginning of 2004, ZTE cooperated with KCC, a leading Russian telecommunications operator, to build the world’s first commercial GoTa system. The system has been running for half a year, and has already received favorable comments from KCC heads for its overall outstanding performance. It has become ZTE’s pilot GoTa project in CIS regions and several network operators toured it in December 2004.

  ZTE will also provide GoTa equipment for Malaysia’s national network. Under the contract, ZTE will provide Electcoms, Malaysia’s largest trunking communication operator, with its end-to-end GoTa network solutions.
"GoTa’s success in Malaysia once again proves the technology’s unique competitiveness and ZTE’s leading position in the CDMA industry," said Mr. Marshall Towe, Jr., vice president of Qualcomm.  "Qualcomm will work closely with ZTE to promote the world’s first CDMA-based GoTa commercial technology and its standardization."
Additionally, ZTE has cooperated with operators to build GoTa commercial networks in Norway, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt and Algeria, making ZTE’s GoTa solution one of the world’s major trunking technologies.

  To exploit more market opportunities for GoTa, ZTE has announced major objectives in the global digital trunking market. "ZTE plays a dominant role in the field of GoTa, and our objective is to become one of the world leaders in providing radio trunking equipment in recent years," said Mr. Zhao Xianming, Vice President of ZTE Corporation.

3 To Establish GoTa Industry Alliance Worldwide
While actively promoting GoTa applications worldwide, ZTE is making an all-out effort to drive a GoTa industrialization programme and to build an end-to-end GoTa-based industry chain.

  In order to compete with iDEN and other standards worldwide and make GoTa a truly global digital trunking technical standard, ZTE is well aware that it is necessary to establish the GoTa industry chain that involves all aspects of the whole market, ranging from equipment manufacturers to industry application solution providers, content and service providers, network carriers, and finally the end users. In other words, only by smoothing the way to profitable growth can GoTa provide a more promising prospect for the future.

  In fact, as early as April 2004, only one month before ZTE officially released its GoTa system, the company started work on a GoTa industry alliance and successfully held the first alliance conference on the promotion of GoTa terminal modules that was attended by over 50 vendors.

  In terms of system commercialization and implementation, ZTE has already signed technical cooperation agreements with several equipment manufacturers such as NORTEL, SEG and CAPITEL, for the purpose of implementing open standard and interface specifications and providing cooperative partners with total solutions to jointly build an industry chain alliance of system equipment. Some manufacturers have already developed a GoTa trunking system by adopting the related specifications.

  In terms of terminal industrialization, ZTE not only provides self-developed GoTa terminal series, but also cooperates with many terminal vendors like Soutec, Guanri, Youthnet and Hengxin to achieve multi-vendor supply and a full series of terminal products. At present, all allied vendors are consecutively launching a variety of GoTa terminals of different styles and models to meet the requirements of different users, such as an ordinary GoTa handset or a special GoTa terminal with a "three-protections" function, GPS vehicle, DTU (Data Transfer Unit), and wireless modem card, etc.

  In terms of its service platform, ZTE has established cooperation with more than 100 value-added service providers and industry application integrators and developed many practical GoTa application services, including PN4747-based location and multi-ISP access that are exclusively supported by GoTa.

  Currently, the GoTa system can support numerous wireless data services such as video monitor, multimedia SMS, intelligent network, Location Based Services (LBS), WAP gateway and streaming media center, a variety of short message services like missed call prompt, return receipt to short message and power-on prompt, Virtual Private Data Network (VPDN) enterprise data service, industry application of the location service, wireless data collection and supervision, etc. The wide ranges of practical services help operators swiftly occupy the market and generate more revenues.

ZTE is steadily driving the commercial use and popularity of GoTa system at home and abroad by virtue of its unique technical advantages and global market strategy, combined with the joint effort of all vendors in the industry chain. The GoTa products serve not only as an impelling force in carrying out ZTE’s global strategy, but also as a sharp weapon for Chinese enterprise to penetrate into the global digital trunking market.

Manuscript received: 2004-12-15