"We are talking with telecom equipment makers such as Lucent and Nortel Networks this year to further our partnerships so as to better position ourselves," said Zheng Baoyong, executive vice-president of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Developed countries and regions have long been a territory the firm has dreamt of becoming involved in.

"In the near term, we may cut into those markets via our partnership rather than fighting on our own," he told China Daily.

"In fact, venturing into developed markets like the United States and Europe will become a significant part for our growth in the years to come," said Zheng.

In the coming three years, Huawei intends selling its third generation (3G) wireless telecommunications related equipment for around US$15 billion, mainly to overseas markets, he added.

Huawei began its global expansion several years ago and experienced sales growth in the international market of 156 per cent in 2001, 68 per cent in 2002, 90 per cent in 2003 and 117 per cent in 2004.

Last year it had sales of 46.2 billion yuan (US$5.56 billion), of which overseas sales stood at US$2.28 billion yuan.

It aims to double its international sales revenues in the next three years.

"We plan to provide for our customers according to their needs so as to ensure our growth," Zheng said.

At the CTIA Wireless Show last week in New Orleans, Huawei introduced its advanced and innovative CDMA 2000 IP distributed solution in addition to its high performance CDMA 2000.

The powerful combination of CDMA 2000 and Huawei's NGN (next generation network) utilized IP transmission and the NGN's distributed architecture enables network operators to deploy existing and new services while reducing capital outlay and operating expenses.

Huawei's CDMA 2000/NGN solution, says Zhang, can scale to 1.8 million subscribers in three cabinets with a BHCA (busy hour call attempts) of 2.7 million.

The solution also enables a centralized mobile switching centre function for control and deployment of new services from a single point, reducing operational and management costs.

Refuting suggestions it is winning many contracts through price-cutting measures, Zheng said: "We are not selling our products with cheap prices. Instead, we take advantage of the comparative low cost of labour, R&D and resources domestically."

"In the United States, for example, we are not planning to lower our prices," he added.

There, Huawei operates under its Futurewei subsidiary based in Plano with additional offices in Santa Clara and San Diego.

In December last year, Huawei announced that it had won its first US contract by wrapping up an agreement with NTCH Inc, the US-based wireless operator, to help launch its CDMA2000 1X wireless network.

Under the agreement, Huawei Technologies will launch the network with NTCH Inc that offers mobile services under its ClearTalk, Wireless Made Simple brand, in California and Arizona.

Analysts believe that Huawei's contract with NTCH demonstrated Huawei's expanding capabilities, a strong signal that Huawei has become a world leading wireless solution provider.

(China Daily March 22, 2005)