Alcatel will spare no effort in seeking out a greater share of the Chinese market this year, according to Philippe Germond, Alcatel's president and chief operating officer.

"We will extend our leadership in the growing market in the areas of broadband wireless access, mobile NGN (next generation of network) and increased wireless applications," he said in a group interview earlier this week.

Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers.

Germond believes that user-centric broadband services and applications enable service providers to differentiate their offerings in a competitive marketplace with customized service bundles that can attract new consumers, reduce churn, and increase revenue.

In the user-centric broadband world, a single identity gives access to different services, no matter what device is used, fixed or mobile, in a converged network.

Alcatel operates mainly through its joint venture in Shanghai, Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB).

Alcatel is to continue to target the Chinese market in terms of mobile, fixed and enterprise users this year.

To strengthen its competitiveness both in the domestic and overseas markets, Alcatel signed an OEM (original equipment manufacture) agreement earlier this month with ZTE, one of the largest domestic telecoms equipment makers, for the integration of ZTE's CDMA (code division multiple access) radio access portfolio into Alcatel's end-to-end CDMA solutions.

The agreement covers ZTE's complete portfolio of CDMA radio access solutions, including CDMA2000 1X EV-DO (evolution data optimized) and CDMA 450.

CDMA is currently driven by strong prospects in developing markets, especially with CDMA 450 solutions, as well as by the success of EV-DO spreading out of key markets like the United States and South Korea.

Analysts believe that throwing ZTE's CDMA radio access portfolio into the mix makes Alcatel the only company ready to address all forms of broadband.

In the meantime, Germond said the company is also pinning high hopes on China's upcoming third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications strategies.

In fact, Alcatel has joined in 3G trials with China Mobile, China Netcom and China Telecom in the past two years.

Alcatel's leading position in 3G in China has been reinforced by its partnership with Datang Mobile.

In November, ASB formed a strategic partnership with Datang Mobile to jointly foster the development of TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) both in China and the global market.

According to the agreement, ASB is to invest a total of 25 million euros (US$32.4 million) in Datang Mobile including share holding and participation in the industrialization of TD-SCDMA, one of the three internationally acknowledged standards for 3G.

(China Daily February 25, 2005)