ZTE taken off the US naughty step

Chinese kit vendor ZTE has been rewarded for owning up to trade sanction violations and promising to never do it again by being taken off the US Entity List.

The rather creepily-named Entity List is essentially a shit-list for companies and individuals looking to do business with the US that subjects them to special licensing requirements that, at the very least, make doing such business more burdensome. Basically, if you’re on this list and have an opportunity to get off it, that becomes priority number one.

ZTE was caught facilitating trade in US-made products with Iran and North Korea, both of which are embargoed. As a result the company was fined over a billion dollars and obliged to implement a raft of measures to demonstrate it has learnt its lesson. This contrition averted an outright US trade embargo and the final part of ZTE’s rehabilitation and reintroduction to US society is the removal of the Entity List sword of Damocles.

“Today, ZTE is turning the page on a challenging chapter in our past and is optimistic of our future,” said ZTE CEO, Zhao Xianming. “By acknowledging the mistakes we made, taking responsibility for them, and remaining focused on enacting positive change in our company, we are committed to a ZTE that is fully compliant, healthy and trustworthy.

“With this settlement behind us – and coupled with recent efforts to streamline operations and grow ZTE’s innovative leadership around 5G – we anticipate continued growth and business expansion over the next several years as we continue to work with our partners in the U.S. and around the world.”

Apparently keen to recover its momentum in the region ZTE North America recently announced the successful transmission of single-carrier PM-256QAM signals at 34-Gbaud over a distance of 80km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) for the first time, claiming a new world record in 400G single-carrier signal transmission. The company also announced a deal with Digicel to help it expand its 4G network across the Caribbean and Central America.