ZTE Corp, China's biggest public telecommunications equipment maker, yesterday posted third quarter results that were below analysts' estimates because telcos trimmed spending on networks while it faced political hurdles in India and Europe.

ZTE's net profit rose an annual 18 percent to 483.9 million yuan (US$72.4 million) from July to September, or 0.17 yuan a share, lagging a Bloomberg forecast of 525 million yuan.

Its revenue edged up slightly to 15.3 billion yuan from 15.1 billion yuan but it was still below analysts' estimate of 17.4 billion yuan.

ZTE said telcos were cautious in their investments while policy changes in India and Europe also affected business.

The Shenzhen-based firm unveiled early this week a plan to buy US$3 billion worth of chips from Texas Instruments and Qualcomm over the next three years.