India Beckons ZTE

IPTV is a phenomenon that is in its infancy in India. But this is hardly stopping companies of neighboring countries from eying its potential. Why are vendors increasingly investing in setting up offices and manufacturing bases here? One major reason may be attributed to the huge population of the country, hence the enhanced prospects. Making the most of the growing opportunities, ZTE Corporation organized an IPTV workshop on April 19-20 in Shanghai. The company is a fairly new entrant in the IPTV space, with its first trial run undertaken in March 2006 for the Beijing arm of China Netcom. Having recently deployed IPTV in Shanghai, the company is now training its eyes to tap the latent potential here.

Alex Chang, Sales Manager, ZTE Corporation demonstrates the functions of a ZTE surveillance system

Networking equipment on display at the company’s R&D center in Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai

ZTE mobile phones displayed at the company’s R&D center in Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai

ZTE began its India operations in 2001 as a telecommunication equipment provider. The company, which provides products ranging from CDMA/GSM handsets, data cards and value-added solutions in the Indian market claims a100 percent average growth rate in India over the past six years. ZTE was a participant in Convergence India 2007, during which time they realized the budding prospects for IPTV at hand. “The market here is huge. We also got to know that people here like music and entertainment is a big market, hence there is much potential,” claimed Yu Yi Fang, GM—Multimedia Products Line, ZTE Corporation.

India calling

As the company slowly gains its foothold in the IPTV market worldwide, its plans for India are gradually taking shape. Fang shared that they had captured more than half of the IPTV marketshare in China and were at an initial stage in trying to get in touch with the India market. “There are essentially three steps in rolling out a product in a country. In the first step, the vendor must find out the customer needs and understand them. In the second step they must proceed to hold talks with the different carriers in the country. And finally, if the vendor’s systems pass the test, in terms of market requirement and SP requirement, then they can announce plans to rollout the product,” he added. The trend in IT is also to go upcountry and that is exactly what ZTE plans to do. Even when deploying IPTV in China the company covered not only the metropolitan cities but also many provinces around the cities. This is a strategy they will adopt when deploying IPTV in India. When egged about when they would announce plans to rollout IPTV in India, Fang said it would all depend on the carriers.

Strategy

One of the advantages that ZTE has is in the form of existing R&D centers and local offices in the country. The company recently opened an R&D center covering a space of over 4,000 sq m in Manesar. This facility manu­factures telecom equipment and mobile handsets. As part of their expansion plans in India the vendor also indicated that they would consider starting a facility manufacturing broadband equipment in Chennai. Speaking about manufacturing IPTV equipment in India, Fang stated, “We may produce some products like set-top boxes in India. We have local R&D centers so we can use these to cater to the India market.”

Recognizing that India is a price conscious market, Fang claimed that both price and performance would be their forte. “We understand customer requirements so we will provide customized services. That will be our strategy; provide best performance at good price,” he added.

Brand ZTE

An important factor for any company is branding. They must go all out to be known in the market. Yu shared that ZTE was attending exhibitions in global markets and taking part in roadshows. The company is also all geared up to cover all systems for the Olympics to be held next year in Beijing.

Ruth Samson

The author was hosted in Shanghai by ZTE