Planned hubs will create new technologies, ideas

20 July, 2011, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (ZTE) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, today announced that it would team up with several global  telecommunications giants to create 10 international innovation centers in Europe and South America. The company also announced that it plans to establish additional innovation centers in China through partnerships with the nation’s largest telecommunications operators.

The 10 international innovation centers, which are planned in European countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, will be established through cooperation with mainstream telecoms operators in those respective countries. The centers will be comprised of location-specific cooperative operations including laboratories and operations and testing centers. Their focus will be to produce innovative technologies, products and business operations models. The new ideas and products produced will be applied to ZTE and its partners’ market and research and development strategies.

In addition, ZTE recognizes the importance of what it calls “continuous customized innovation.” Accordingly, the innovation centers will aim to better understand the needs of major telecommunications operators by creating long-term, stable and effective communication channels with other global providers.

The telecommunications industry is currently undergoing a critical period referred to as a “second transformation.” This means that services utilized by the industry are moving from being mostly voice-based to primarily data-based. It also includes a high-level integration of IT, CT and appliance technologies that is dramatically changing the landscape of the industry, its business models and is further complicating the already diverse needs of data equipment providers.

"Because of the transformative shift in the industry, providers like ZTE must deeply understand and become involved in the business operations and demands of customers seamlessly and at a faster pace,” said ZTE Executive Vice President Xie Daxiong. “The innovation centers under development by ZTE and its partners are a collective, proactive response to this change.”

He continued, “We seek to introduce new products that are capable of changing the landscape of the current telecommunications market. At ZTE, we are undergoing a change that will elevate us from ‘following innovation’ to ‘DRA innovation,’ which means we will turn user Demand (D) into a Requirement (R) for R&D personnel, allowing them to more effectively design Architecture (A).”

The new innovation centers are not ZTE’s first efforts in collaborative research. The company also has demonstrated its commitment to joint projects by partnering with world-leading scientific institutions and universities. In early July, ZTE signed a memorandum of understanding with Technical University Dresden with the purpose of opening a research and development center in Germany. In China, ZTE has established collaborative research institutes with four research institutes and 19 universities including Peking University and Tsinghua University.