25 May 2009, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions,has launched a prototype of the world's firstsymmetrical 10G EPON equipment at the China FTTH Summit 2009 as well asOLT equipment that supports symmetrical 10G EPON and a series of ONUproducts.

Symmetrical 10G EPON technology is a new-generation PON technology withboth upstream and downstream access rates reaching 10Gbps. It is themainstream next-generation PON technical standard generally recognizedby international standard organisations. Since its upstream bandwidth is10 times larger than with asymmetrical 10G EPON technology, it is muchmore effective in terms of application capabilities and developmentpotential.

Demand for optical access is being accelerated by the global trendtowards broadband implementation. According to Ovum, 2008 saw a hugeglobal volume of FTTX shipments led by the Asia Pacific region, with theChinese market, particularly for EPON products, being particularlylarge. This has been a powerful boost for 10G EPON technology and thedemand has encouraged PON developers to speed up product development and
refinement. The launch of ZTE's symmetrical 10G EPON prototype marks theemergence of 10G EPON technology as the first mature standard ofnext-generation PON technologies.
The IEEE 802.3av 10G EPON standard will be formally published inSeptember this year. Currently the 10G EPON industry chain has entered arapid development stage, with operators, equipment vendors, chip vendorsand optical module manufacturers all actively helping to push the R&D ofthis technology. It is expected that 10G EPON will enter the large-scalecommercial deployment stage within one to two years.

ZTE is a leader in optical access equipment research and has deployedits OLT, MDU, and SFU/HGU series products in many global operators'networks. It is the sole system vendor with more than 12 millioncommercial PON ports in use.

ZTE has for many years been actively engaged in R&D relating to 10G EPONstandards and equipment. With the launch of the world's firstasymmetrical 10G EPON equipment prototype at the Beijing InternationalTelecommunications Exhibition in October 2008 and now of the symmetrical10G EPON equipment prototype, ZTE has drawn a clear FTTX constructionblueprint for operators to smoothly evolve from EPON into 10G EPON.

ZTE had the industry's first unified optical access platform supportingEPON, GPON and next-generation PON (10G PON). On the same platform, ZTEhas now developed a symmetrical 10G EPON board with a symmetrical 10GEPON port that complies with the IEEE 802.3av standard. This port cansupport 1G EPON ONU, asymmetrical 10G EPON ONU, and symmetrical 10G EPONONU on the same ODN, providing the ideal solution for operators tosmoothly evolve from EPON to 10G EPON. ZTE has also launched a symmetrical 10G EPON ONU product.  

Mr. Xu Ming, Vice President of ZTE Corporation said that it is imperative that the industry promotes the application ofsymmetrical 10G EPON next-generation optical access products, since theworldwide broadband user base is expected to increase by 10 times everyfive years. ZTE has invested significant R&D resources to achieve thelaunch of the 10G EPON equipment prototype, which the company believesis a milestone for the optical access industry.

ZTE GPON + VDSL2 technologies won the InfoVision award at BroadbandWorld Forum Asia 2008 and the 2008 Best Green Innovation award presentedby the International Engineering Consortium (IEC). ZTE PON products haveover 50% of the China market and have been installed around the worldincluding in Italy, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, China and Hong Kong.