ZTE: "Winning this award will make a positive impression on our global clients"

We speak to Jane Chen, Senior Vice President at ZTE Corporation, which won the category ‘Core and Metro Network Innovation and Advances’ at this year’s Broadband InfoVision Awards.

How does being named for this award benefit your business?

ZTE has won five Broadband InfoVision Awards since 2007, and this year we have entered ten categories and been shortlisted in six of those proposals. Our shortlisted entries are very competitive thanks to their innovative and future-proof technology, and get high feedback ratings from our clients, and as a result of this we are confident of doing well.

Winning this award will make a positive impression on our global clients, and means that our solutions meet the strict requirements of top operators due to the fact that the awards are judged by the CTOs of some of the world’s top telecoms operators – it implies that we can satisfy the demands of our global clients.

What recent industry developments does it specifically address?

The smart pipe is a broad concept – it does not refer to a specific technology. It does not mean that a network will become a smart pipe after a certain technology is employed. A smart pipe should be a system or a solution that covers different application scenarios in order to meet users’ differentiated requirements. Its core is the great attention paid to the differentiated service experiences of users.

What plans do you have to improve it in the coming months?

In the coming months, we will, as always, provide end-to-end intelligent network solutions tailor-made to the needs of users in different markets. Worldwide, we think we are focusing on the first stage of smart pipe construction, that is, the stage of “building high-speed infrastructure and dividing vehicle lanes”. The strategy for this stage is to build a high-speed pipe based on the traditional pipe, thus laying the foundation for a smart pipe. Specifically, we should do the following:

– Deploy 10G EPON technology, commercialising 100G routers, deploying 40G/100G WDM equipment and super large integrated OTN cross-connect equipment, and so on, to build a high-speed pipe in a fast and flexible fashion.

– Gradually provide service identification and user identification capabilities at the network level.

– Deploying different policies for different services to allow the pipe to gradually gain end-to-end service assurance capability.

– Actively deploy a unified network management system and building a basic management infrastructure.

What do you see as being the biggest single challenge to the broadband industry in the next few years, and why?

The biggest challenge is how to innovate in and experiment with business models. ZTE is establishing joint innovation centres across the world. Internationally, we will work with major operators in key markets such as Europe and the US to set up ten joint innovation centres to develop technologies of mutual interest. Domestically, we will build joint innovation centres together with the three Chinese operators.

In doing so, we aim to establish a long-term, stable and effective communication channel with high-end customers which allows us to profoundly understand the operators’ requirements and generate innovative services and solutions of value to both the operators and ZTE.

How do you think the industry should start preparing to meet this challenge?

The smart pipe presents us with both challenges and opportunities. To get ahead, we have to boost our competitiveness and provide customers with innovative solutions.

ZTE’s networking products now serve 514 operators in more than 120 countries. Our advantage is that based on an in-depth understanding of the network development needs of different operators, we have launched new-generation solutions that are centred on IP technology while also integrating packet and optical technologies. With the solutions, we are able to build green, secure, and future-proof intelligent networks for operators.

This year’s Broadband InfoVision Awards were announced during a gala dinner held aboard a river cruise in Paris on September 27th, 2011. For a complete list of winners, please click here