Chinese telecommunication equipment makers, not foreign vendors, took the top positions in the domestic 3G market, an industry report said yesterday.

In the third generation mobile phone market, Chinese telecom makers, including ZTE Corp, Huawei Technologies and Datang Mobile, occupied 70 percent of the market based on sales by the end of last month, said CCID Consulting, a Beijing-based research firm.

By comparison, foreign vendors like Ericsson Inc and Nokia-Siemens took more than 50 percent share of the 2G market for a long period.

"The homegrown makers won the battle thanks to their competitive prices and stable quality," CCID said.

By the end of February, ZTE led the domestic market with 29.3 percent, followed by Huawei's 21.9 percent and Datang's 12.6 percent, CCID said. Ericsson's share of the market stood at 10.9 percent.

The success in the domestic market will give confidence to Chinese firms to expand overseas, CCID said. Both ZTE and Huawei's overseas sales are expected to grow more than 30 percent each despite the global financial crisis, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

At present, China's investment in 3G has reached 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion). The total 3G investment, estimated at 280 billion yuan over two years, will create between 800,000 and 1 million new job opportunities each year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China issued 3G licenses to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom in January. Users can enjoy high-speed services under 3G.

(Shanghai Daily March 12, 2009)