With its large population and lack of network infrastructure, telecommunications gear makers have long viewed China as a potentially lucrative market.
And while orders haven’t exploded there (or anywhere else for that matter) to the extent predicted during the boom years of 1990s, some significant deals are beginning to emanate from the country.
This morning, UTStarcom announced that it will sell $114 million of its Internet protocol-based personal access systems (PAS) to China Netcom, which is expanding its broadband network in the Hebei, Shandong and Liaoning provinces.
“Our IP-based PAS system allows operators to offer advanced services to their subscribers such as, SMS, MMS, MP3 downloads and Internet browsing, which is becoming increasingly popular with consumers in China,” said Johnny Chou, COO of UTStarcom’s China subsidiary.
UTStarcom builds, sells and installs network access switching products allowing carriers to offer voice, data, and Internet access. It aims to ease the transition from wireline to wireless, narrowband to broadband, and circuit- to packet-based networks.
The 12-year-old company is based in Alameda, Calif., but has a significant presence in Asia. It manufactures the majority of its products in China and has sales and customer support offices throughout the country. Additionally, it has a presence in Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Bangkok and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
For USTI, it’s the second nine-figure deal this week from Asia. On Wednesday it tallied more than $100 million in contracts from Yahoo BB, Japan’s largest digital subscriber line supplier.
Previously, Yahoo BB bought and deployed more than $130 million of USTI equipment. The service provider plans to deliver streaming content to customers later this quarter.