ZTE has posted a 23% revenue growth for its full-year 2015 results, pointing to growth in its international consumer business and carrier networking gear.

Amid a management reshuffle and well-documented tensions with the US over trade sanctions, the Chinese kit vendor has posted revenues of CNY100.19 billion for the year ending 31^st December 2015. It claims operating cash flow and cash dividend hit historic highs, largely down to the growth and success of 4G products, smart city and emerging ICT technology.

IoT was one of the success stories of 2015 for ZTE, and a statement released alongside the financial results said: “A major highlight for 2015 was the rapid growth of the group’s Smart City projects as well as its data centre and ICT businesses, which are key pillars of ZTE’s M-ICT vision and strategy to offer converged technology solutions and innovation in the era of mobile broadband and the Internet of Things.”

It also confirmed that US smartphone penetration grew in 2015 with the shipment of 30 million units, and to break into the top four smartphone vendors in the country for the first time. Like Huawei, ZTE has strong ambitions to internationalise its brand and become heavily adopted in the global market outside of China.

China still makes up more than 50% of all revenues, and ZTE says the Chinese government’s Internet+ initiative helped to push the financial growth.

“The issuance of FDD-LTE permits, “Internet+” and the rush for optical fibre upgrades drove further growth in investments in 4G equipment and broadband networks. Meanwhile, the Group also vigorously expanded its cloud computing and Big Data services, Smart City and high-end routers.”

For the year ahead, ZTE says it plans to continue pushing pre-5G projects and working on expanding the existing research partnerships it developed in 2015.

“The Group also made significant breakthroughs in the research of key 5G technologies and successfully deployed its commercially ready Pre-5G technology. ZTE has successfully partnered with China Mobile, Softbank, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, KT Corporation and U Mobile in 5G and Pre-5G initiatives.”