Cooperativa – Argentina´s largest telecommunications operator union – has ordered ZTE´s GSM850 mobile network equipment for its operators across southern Argentina.  This is the first stage of a long-term partnership agreement that has been signed by the two companies.

Cooperativa is made up of more than 300 local operators across Argentina. The first equipment will be installed for major cooperative member Telefonica de Rio Tubio in the key area of Santa Cruz, which attracts large numbers of local and international tourists.  The GSM 850 equipment will comprise MSC, BSC and BTS.

Argentina´s National Development and Planning Department vice-president Mr Julio de Vido signed the contract during the Sino-Argentina conference in Beijing.

"We are honoured by the extreme seniority of the Argentinean signatory to our contract, and the fact that it was signed as part of the main conference, which, we believe, shows our lead over our competition in this important overseas market, as well as our customer´s confidence and high regard for ZTE," said Mr Cuiyi, Vice General Manager of ZTE International Marketing Division.  "We look forward to building on this relationship in the future."

This is ZTE´s first success with an operator union and follows customer visits to ZTE facilities in Shenzhen and Shanghai.

"Cooperatives are a very important part of the telecommunications arena in Argentina and other countries in South America. Their equipment provisioning is vital for their members and for millions of users and we are therefore delighted that ZTE has been chosen against truly world competition," said Mr Cuiyi.

ZTE is committed to developing new technologies: every year, for the past ten years, the corporation has invested about 10% of its revenues in research and development; almost half of all ZTE personnel are involved in this area and more than 6,000 of the 18,000-strong workforce have Masters degrees, 400 have Ph.D.s.  The corporation owns 1600 patents, with more than 90% of these being for original innovations, and operates 13 research and development centres worldwide, including establishments in the Sweden and the USA.

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About ZTE: ZTE Corporation is China´s largest listed telecommunications equipment provider specializing in offering customized network solutions for telecom carriers worldwide. The company develops and manufactures telecommunications equipment for fixed, mobile, data and optical networks, intelligent networks and next generation networks as well as mobile phones.