corporation zte corporate campus in shenzhen guangdong native name formerly called zhongxing telecommunication equipment corporation type public traded as szse 000063 sehk 0763 industry telecommunications equipment networking equipment founded 1985 ; 31 years ago 1985 founder h u w igu headquarters shenzhen guangdong china area served worldwide key people h u w igu chairman sh l r ng president 1 products mobile phones smartphones tablet computers hardware software and services to telecommunications service providers and enterprises revenue cn 81.471 billion 2014 2 operating income cn 3.538 billion 2014 2 net income cn 2.634 billion 2014 2 total assets cn 106.214 billion 2014 2 number of employees 69 093 2014 1 website www.zte.com.cn www.ztedevice.com zte simplified chinese traditional chinese literal meaning china prosperity communications corporation transcriptions standard mandarin hanyu pinyin zh ngx ng t ngx n g f n y uxi n g ngs yue cantonese jyutping zung1hing3 tung1seun3 gu2fan6 jau6haan6 gung1si1 zte corporation is a chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company headquartered in shenzhen guangdong . zte operates in three business units carrier networks 54 % terminals 29 % and telecommunication 17 % . zte s core products are wireless exchange access optical transmission and data telecommunications gear ; mobile phones ; and telecommunications software . 3 it also offers products that provide value added services 4 such as video on demand and streaming media . 5 zte primarily sells products under its own name but it is also an oem . 6 zte is one of the top five largest smartphone manufacturers in its home market 7 and worldwide in the top ten . contents 1 history 2 subsidiaries 2.1 ztesoft technology 2.2 pt . zte indonesia 2.3 zte australia pty ltd 2.4 zte deutschland gmbh 2.5 zte usa inc 2.6 zte telecom india pvt ltd 2.7 zte hk ltd 2.8 zte do brasil ltda . 2.9 zte pakistan pvt ltd 2.10 zte myanmar 2.11 zonergy 3 products 3.1 consumer electronics 3.2 network operators equipment network nodes and network elements 4 customers 5 sponsorship 6 controversies 6.1 bribes for contracts 6.2 surveillance system sale 6.3 handset security 7 external links history edit zte initially founded as zhongxing semiconductor co. ltd in shenzhen guangdong province in 1985 was incorporated by a group of investors associated with china s ministry of aerospace . 8 in march 1993 zhongxing semiconductor has changed its name to zhongxing new telecommunications equipment co. ltd with capital of rmb 3 million and created a new business model as a state owned and private operating economic entity . ties to the state notwithstanding the corporation has evolved into zte corporation of being publicly traded having made an initial public offering ipo on the shenzhen stock exchange in 1997 and another on the hong kong stock exchange in december 2004 . 8 while the company initially profited from domestic sales 9 it vowed to use money from its 2004 hong kong ipo to further expand r & d overseas sales to developed nations and overseas production . 10 making headway in the international telecom market in 2006 it took 40 % of new global orders for cdma networks 11 topping the world cdma equipment market by number of shipments . 12 that same year also saw zte find a customer in the canadian telus 13 and membership in the wi fi alliance . 14 more customers in developed nations soon followed telus lead and in 2007 zte had sold to uk s vodafone spain s telefonica and the australian telstra 13 as well as garnering the greatest number of cdma contracts globally . 15 by 2008 zte could claim its customer base was truly global as it had made sales in 140 countries . 13 in 2009 the company had become the worldwide third largest vendor of gsm telecom equipment and about 20 % of all gsm gear sold throughout the world that year was zte branded . 16 as of 2011 it holds around 7 % of the key 3gpp long term evolution patents 17 and that same year launched the world s first smartphone with dual gps glonass navigation mts 945 . zte claims to devote 10 % of its annual revenue on research and development each year and it could be producing patents and utility licenses at a furious pace . 18 19 zte has filed 48 000 patents globally and with more than 13 000 patents granted . 90 % more patents are invention related . in two consecutive years 2011 and 2012 zte has been granted the largest number of patent applications globally 20 which is the first for a chinese company . 21 subsidiaries edit the zte tower in shenzhen zte has several international subsidiaries . ztesoft technology edit as a subsidiary of zte corporation ztesoft engages in ict industry and specializes in providing bss oss big data products and services to telecom operators and ict smart city and industry products and services to enterprises and governments . pt . zte indonesia edit pt zte indonesia were representative of zte with has many customer with pt telkom indonesia tbk pt telekomunikasi seluler tbk pt indosat tbk pt smartfren tbk pt xl axiata and also supply hand held with zte trademarks . zte australia pty ltd edit zte entered the australian market in 2005 22 and as of 2009 zte australia pty ltd 23 acts as the exclusive supplier of zte handsets network cards and as oem supplier to customers such as telstra and optus in australia . zte deutschland gmbh edit zte deutschland gmbh was founded in 2005 with headquarters in d sseldorf ; it as of 2008 had hired 50 people 60 % of whom were recruited locally . 24 zte deutschland gmbh partners with german football club borussia m nchengladbach for the seasons of 2016 17 and 2017 18 . 25 zte usa inc edit a north american subsidiary of zte 26 with headquarters in richardson texas 27 zte usa inc offers wireless handset and networking products in the us . zte usa partnered with nba s houston rockets for the season of 2013 2014 26 zte telecom india pvt ltd edit zte telecom india private limited provides distributes telecom equipment and systems . the company also provides repair support and maintenance services for its telecom equipment . zte telecom india private limited was formerly known as zte kangxun telecom company india private limited . the company was founded in 2003 and is based in gurgaon india . zte hk ltd edit zte hong kong ltd. china serves in such areas as global contract manufacturing . zte do brasil ltda . edit zte do brasil ltda . was founded in 2002 with headquarters in s o paulo and offices in rio de janeiro and bras lia ; providing mobile devices and network products for the brazilian market . zte pakistan pvt ltd edit zte 28 was introduced in the pakistani market in 1999 with its headquarters in islamabad and major offices in lahore and karachi . providing telecom equipment network products and managed services to telecom operators in pakistan i.e. ptcl telenor mobilink zong special communications organization sco . zte myanmar edit zte myanmar is also a fully owned subsidiary of zte corporation zonergy edit main article zonergy zonergy is a renewables company with interests in electricity generation through solar parks in china and pakistan and palm oil cultivation in indonesia to produce biofuels . zte is a major shareholder and was instrumental in the creation of the company in 2007 but holds a minority of the shares in the entity . 29 products edit a zte blade s6 plus zte operates in three business segments carrier networks 54 % terminals 29 % telecommunication 17 % products can be roughly arranged into three categories equipment used by network operators links and nodes etc. equipment used to access networks terminals and services which includes software . 30 on october 2010 zte s unified encryption module received u.s. canada fips140 2 security certification 31 32 which made zte the first vendor from p.r. china to successfully validate modules according to the nist fips140 2 standard under the cmvp program . 33 consumer electronics edit mobile phones as of 2012 zte is the 4th largest mobile phone vendor . 34 it also placed within idc s top 5 smartphone vendor leaderboard . 35 36 strategy analytics counts zte as 4th largest smartphone vendor 5 % market share in 2q2013 . 37 it also manufactures tablets . 38 39 40 mobile hotspots the mf60 and mf80 4g mobile hotspots were announced in august 2011 . 41 windows phone at mobile world congress 2014 in spain microsoft announced that zte is the latest hardware partner of windows phone platform . 42 network operators equipment network nodes and network elements edit zte is also a provider of core routing and core network equipment also known as network elements such as ggsn gsm umts pgw lte epc pdsn cdma zte zxr10 series core switches and core routers mpls routers 43 base stations some of them developed with obsai open base station architecture initiative architecture including china specific time division long term evolution aka td lte radio protocol support and cdma based ev do equipment telephone switches legacy wap and mmsc equipment wimax products based on zte sdr platform part of the uni ran technology uni core core network equipment and services to support the wimax 4g network over 3.5 ghz frequencies . sdn nfv products as seen through open daylight project customers edit zte booth at mobile world congress 2015 in barcelona a good number of zte s customers are outside of china . during the 2000s the majority were developing country mobile network operators but zte products see use in developed countries as well . the uk s vodafone canadian telus australia s telstra as well as france telecom have all purchased equipment from zte . 44 many chinese companies are also zte customers including china netcom 45 china mobile 46 china satcom 47 china telecom 48 and china unicom . 4 49 in the united states zte usa manufactures mobile phones and broadband devices for multiple wireless carriers including at & t boost mobile cricket wireless metropcs sprint t mobile tracfone verizon and virgin mobile . it may also sell network equipment to these carriers . sponsorship edit in may 2016 zte became the co sponsor of german club borussia m nchengladbach . 50 in may 2016 zte s nubia brand signed football star cristiano ronaldo as a brand ambassador for a reported fee of 4 million . 51 controversies edit bribes for contracts edit norway norwegian telecommunications giant telenor one of the world s largest mobile operators banned zte from participating in tenders and new business opportunities because of an alleged breach of its code of conduct in a procurement proceeding during a five month time span ending in march 2009 . 52 philippines main article philippine national broadband network controversy contract negotiations to build a broadband network for the philippine government may have included improper activities . 53 the project was later canceled . 53 surveillance system sale edit in december 2010 zte sold systems for eavesdropping on phone and internet communications to the government controlled telecommunication company of iran . 54 this system may help iran monitor and track political dissidents . handset security edit at least one zte mobile phone sold as the zte score in the united states by cricket and metropcs can be remotely accessed by anyone with an easily obtained password . 34 in 2012 politicians in the united states of america raised other security concerns regarding zte and another chinese wireless equipment manufacturer huawei . 55 a b annual report 2011 pdf . zte corporation . retrieved 26 april 2012 . a b c d annual report 2014 pdf . zte . 2015 04 08 . retrieved 2015 05 22 . product portfolio zte official site a b zte secures more than half of china unicom