China's largest telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies has landed a deal to build a CDMA (code division multiple access) cellular network in Thailand after beating out global giants Ericsson and Motorola.

The deal, valued at 7.2 billion baht (US$187 million), further underscores the rapidly growing international profile of China's flagship telecoms firm.

Huawei's bid undercut those of Ericsson - 7.8 billion baht (US$202 million) - and Motorola - 9.7 billion baht (US$251 million) - in an auction overseen by Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

But Huawei performed best in the technical qualification round organized by Thailand's operator CAT Telecom, according to an earlier report by Thailand's newspaper The Nation.

That successful bid is helping change the industry's notion that Huawei, as well as other Chinese firms aggressively building their presence in the global market, is merely a provider of low-priced products.

Huawei's spokesman Fu Jun said it was reasonable for Huawei to bid 10 percent lower than its foreign rivals as Huawei has significant advantages in controlling costs.

"And we have never been just a low-price product maker," he said.

Analysts said Huawei has grown into a firm capable of delivering high-quality solutions at low prices, which is putting global names like Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, Alcatel and Nortel under increasing pressure.

The successful bid in Thailand follows Huawei's winning of a landmark deal last month in the Netherlands where the firm beat Ericsson to win an order estimated at around 400 million euros (US$520 million) to build a 3G (third generation) WCDMA (wideband CDMA) network.

Huawei's overseas sales last year more than doubled to reach US$2.28 billion, accounting for 41 percent of the firm's annual revenues.

Huawei aims to increase annual overseas sales to US$4 billion this year and US$10 billion in 2008.

Although the company is a rising star of the global telecoms industry, analysts said the firm lacks a track record in winning orders from big operators in developed countries.

Such a history would further prove Huawei's strengths and boost its overseas sales.

To date, the vast majority of orders won by the firm are from developing countries and regions.

The CDMA network in Thailand is limited with only CAT Telecom, with 700,000 subscribers, offering CDMA services. The country's top three operators Advanced Info Service, DTAC and TA Orange have a total of more than 25 million users.

(China Daily January 27, 2005)