The Justice Department is investigating the Hong Kong-listed company for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, with the most recent case occurring in 2018.

Reuters cited sources alleging the Chinese vendor worked out deals in South America that the Justice Department suspects involved bribery.

The Department of Commerce is also reviewing the same facts as the Justice Department to determine if ZTE violated a ten-year agreement reached in 2018 to settle a case related to breaches of US government trade embargoes covering Iran, the news agency stated.

In a stock market filing, ZTE said it communicating with the US Department of Justice and will “resolutely defend its rights and interests through legal means and other measures”. It added the company “opposes all forms of corruption and maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any individuals who may be involved in such activities”.

Failure to reach a settle with the US government could lead to key US suppliers being barred from exporting to ZTE.

In 2018, the company was forced to suspend global operations shortly after a US government order in April banned domestic companies from selling equipment to the vendor.

The company later complied with all requirements of a settlement to resume operations after agreeing to overhaul its board and management, and had paid a $1.4 billion penalty. A year earlier, it pleaded guilty and paid $892 million to settle the case.

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ZTE and MMU have worked closely together for many years to advance Malaysia’s digital talent pipeline. The collaboration began with the development of 5G end-to-end laboratories in Cyberjaya and Melaka, providing students and researchers with a real-life environment to explore next-generation technologies. ZTE also introduced scholarships to support promising students, ensuring that capable talent receives opportunities to thrive.

More recently, MMU was appointed as an authorised training and examination centre for ZTE Certification, covering areas such as 5G, AI, cybersecurity, wireless technologies, and core networks. This ongoing partnership has helped establish MMU as an important technology training hub for Malaysia.

ZTE also continues to support MMU’s strategic initiatives, including the establishment of the NexGen Communication Engineering Hub, launched in 2023. Built around four pillars, namely, the professional skills development, creativity, research excellence, and industry collaboration, the hub reflects the forward-looking approach needed to prepare Malaysia’s next generation of digital professionals.

Beyond the academic ecosystem, the collaboration has extended into public sector talent development. In 2024, ZTE partnered with MMU to deliver “ACE: Navigating the Digital Frontier for Smart Government“, an upskilling programme designed to equip a group of government officers with hands-on digital and technology skills. ZTE has once again been appointed to support the second cohort in 2025. After nearly six months of comprehensive training delivered across seven major cities in China, the programme reached its final milestone in Beijing last week. On December 3, a formal closing ceremony was convened at MMU Cyberjaya, officially marking the completion of the China–Malaysia training initiative. The event recognised the accomplishments of participating officers and reaffirmed the deepening collaboration between both nations in developing a digitally empowered, future-ready public service workforce.

Gu Junying, Senior Vice President of ZTE, said: “We are honoured to support Malaysia’s public service and academic institutions as they build essential digital capabilities. Even as participants complete their programmes today, the journey of learning continues. Technology evolves quickly, and continuous development is vital to building a future-ready workforce.”

The newly signed addendum deepens this cooperation by equipping MMU with ZTE’s cutting-edge AiCube AI education and compute platform, along with smart classroom solutions. AiCube combines a high-performance AI computing foundation with an interactive learning environment, enabling immersive, personalised, and efficient learning experiences. Importantly, these facilities will form a shared ecosystem accessible to both MMU students and JPA programme participants, serving as a testbed for AI and cybersecurity learning, applied research, and project development.

Professor Dato’ Dr. Mazliham Mohd Su’ud, President of MMU, said: “MMU welcomes this enhanced collaboration with ZTE. The deployment of the AiCube platform strengthens our ability to train industry-ready graduates and public service leaders, and supports Malaysia’s broader digital transformation agenda. This collaboration reinforces MMU’s role as a leading institution for technology-driven education, research, and talent development.”

ZTE reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Malaysia’s digital and innovation ecosystem through sustained investment in talent development, advanced learning technologies, and strong partnerships with academia and government. With this expanded collaboration, ZTE and MMU will continue working together to advance the nation’s capabilities in AI, cybersecurity, and next-generation connectivity, contributing to a more future-ready Malaysia.

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The accolade not only highlights ZTE’s leadership in cutting-edge domains such as autonomous network architecture, AI-native design, and multi-agent cross-domain collaboration, but also underscores its expanding influence within the global ICT ecosystem.

ZTE adheres to the philosophy of “continuous innovation and open collaboration”, accelerating the evolution of highly autonomous networks (AN). As a key enabler of global digital transformation, ZTE has partnered with leading global operators and industry players—including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Telenor, AIS, MTN, and Omantel— to initiate and lead multiple TM Forum catalyst projects. Leveraging Agentic AI as a core technological driver, ZTE has achieved breakthroughs and end-to-end validation in high-value scenarios of AN L4.

Project outcomes span critical domains such as agentic AI for customer-centric O&M, multi-level multi-agent system network fault healing, smart 5G with intelligent computing, muti-agent based 5G toB services, establishing a new paradigm of networks with perception, decision-making, execution, and self-evolution. These practices not only enhance operational efficiency and user experience but also mark a pivotal shift in communication networks transitioning from process automation to decision autonomy.

Building on this foundation, ZTE continues to lead industrial standardization efforts, actively advancing the multi-agent collaboration standard A2A-T and collaborating with industry partners to establish the AI for Vehicle (AI4V) standards framework. Looking ahead, ZTE will further integrate AI with communication networks, drive technological inclusivity and industrial synergy, and contribute core capabilities to building a smarter, more efficient, and greener digital world.

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On the panel “How May AI Help You? Agentic AI and the Customer Experience”, Cui Li shared ZTE’s strategic vision for agentic AI and illustrated how it is already reshaping customer experience and operational models across the company. She also underscored its role in strengthening resilience, enhancing oversight and accountability, and urged organizations to prepare now for the era of agentic AI.

Below is Cui Li’s Q&A Section

Q1: Setting the scene – How is agentic AI impacting customer experience in your sector?

Agentic AI is redefining the user experience—not only about UI design, but from response to understanding and co-creation. For ZTE, under our “AI for All” strategy, we are integrating agentic AI into four key areas: networks, computing, homes, and personal devices.

For example, we enable level 4 and beyond autonomous networks with three engines—Nebula Telecom Large Model, big data, and digital twin. In real practice, ZTE and China Mobile co-created multi-agents that can detect network problems and enable self-healing, cutting troubleshooting time by 47%.

Q2: Strategic transformation – How will increasing digital autonomy through agentic AI reshape how organizations build resilience and adaptability?

Actually, we’re in a highly uncertain era now. This requires us to start with the end in mind, namely, always seek stability from uncertainty and build a strong moat like the snowball effect. Also we must stay agile to spot changes and pivot on a dime, evolving from a machine-like organization into an organic, adaptive one.

And then we need to know how AI can truly help us. Large AI models are already performing at or beyond PhD level. While agents take a step further by integrating memory and tools, acting as the real-world application of models. And agentic AI can

coordinate different agents to automate more complex, time-consuming tasks. Of course, this is an ideal status. The truth is, whether agents or agentic AI, they are still at a very early stage, and face many technical challenges. But given the hypergrowth of AI, I believe that solutions will be right in place very soon.

And then I believe AI can exert effects only when we stick with it to the long haul. Intelligence is built on digital and network foundations. Without digital transformation, a company will not truly achieve intelligence, not to mention becoming more resilient or adaptable—it’s just like trying to run before you can walk. Also, going intelligent requires knowledge engineering, process restructuring, and an AI mindset, which is a marathon, not a sprint.

At ZTE, our digital journey started in 2016, and then intelligent transformation in 2022. Here is our experience: infrastructure first, but keep a balance between hardware and software; carry out systematic planning from the top down, to ensure everyone is on the same page; make continuous investment, as disruptive breakthroughs come from every small step; and finally, start from high-value and concrete scenarios, then iterate fast to address any uncertainties along the way.

Q3: Oversight & accountability – As AI systems make more decisions autonomously, how can companies maintain oversight, ensure accountability, and preserve digital sovereignty?

In a nutshell, to keep humans in the loop. Tasks like design, review, decision-making, and supervision—they still need to be done by people, who should remain ultimately accountable. Automation is just a means, not an end. What humans should really worry about is not being replaced—it’s stepping back or being absent in this process.

Every coin has two sides, so do these models. Their generalization, emergent abilities, and continuous evolution—yes, these are the features of a truly game-changing tech. But they inherently come with hallucinations, black-box problems, and so on. In addition, human has social intelligence and morality, something that AI can never truly master. So essentially, AI is built on statistical models—it lacks common sense in the real world, let alone navigating complex trade-offs like humans do.

More importantly, rolling out AI in a business needs the deep integration with know-how. We have to consider factors like accuracy, security, compliance, and division of responsibility, and take into account both workflows and KPIs. From ZTE’s hands-on experience, I’d like to give some tips: First, companies should develop their own knowledge engineering projects and domain-specific large models—plus RAG and digital twins to be professional and reliable. Second, identify the concrete problems that agents need to solve. A one-size-fits-all agent often ends up doing nothing well. Third, know when to use agents or workflows. Agents are better at handling complex tasks with variable execution paths, while workflows are more accurate and efficient in highly predictable scenarios. Last, enable end-edge-cloud collaboration to ensure both cost efficiency and security. While among all these key parts, humans are still the ones steering AI in the right direction and creating real value.

Q4: Looking ahead – How do you see agentic AI evolving from task-based automation to integrated business partners, and what immediate actions should organisations take to future-proof themselves for agentic AI?

From a tech perspective, we can think of agents or agentic AI as proactive digital workers. Beyond simple or repetitive tasks, they can connect entire workflows, realize cognitive automation, and even self-evolve. Agents now work well in scenarios that are well-structured, info-heavy, fault-tolerant, and have clear feedback loops. But they often get stuck in the lab when the real-world environments become more complex or risky. So like I said, agents and agentic AI are still early. In the next year or two, they will mainly focus on vertical industries. After that, they will take on complex tasks with greater autonomy, getting more generalized, adaptive, and able to learn and evolve. Agents now are developing very fast. Gemini 3, which was just launched last month, sets a new bar for AI models with SOTA reasoning, multimodal understanding, and agentic capabilities.

For organizations, I think embracing AI is the only way to go. Deploying AI isn’t just about connecting to APIs—it’s reshaping processes, structures, and teams. Companies need to first make mid- and long-term plans, and be adaptable enough to keep up with tech and market changes. Next, start from high-value, business-specific scenarios, and then iterate fast. That’s how we can truly master AI. Also, it is reshaping our talent strategy. In the future, three types of talent will matter most: AI experts, who drive this technology forward; AI power users, who foster innovation and enhance efficiency; and people who go beyond AI with high-order thinking and a healthy mindset. Finally, to give AI full play, companies should restructure themselves and plan for a future of “human-AI symbiosis”.

AI Innovation Asia 2025 is a high-level dialogue platform connecting enterprise leaders, technology pioneers, and policymakers. Centered on 15 in-depth thematic sessions and insights from more than 40 industry experts, the platform focuses on the commercialization pathways of frontier technologies, such as generative AI and Agentic AI, to help businesses turn technical insight into tangible growth and navigate sustainable digital transformation across Asia-Pacific’s complex market landscape.

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The event featured a diverse range of activities, including keynote speeches, product and solution exhibitions, university-enterprise MOU signing, milestone celebrations for network deployments, and partner awards ceremonies. These activities highlighted the vibrant and dynamic aspects of ZTE’s Global Services Ecosystem. Through this forum, ZTE reaffirmed its strategic direction in digital-intelligent services and jointly charted a roadmap for an open, collaborative, and mutually beneficial ecosystem.

Currently, the world is accelerating into a new stage of industrial transformation driven by AI technology. ZTE actively embraces this change, driving the intelligentization process of the industry through technological investment, and is committed to leading the development of next-generation networks and intelligent computing, thereby promoting the intelligent upgrade of various industries.

Sun Fangping, Senior Vice President of ZTE and President of Global Services, delivered a keynote speech, stating that, the rapid, extensive, and in-depth application of AI technologies is continuously driving industrial upgrading and integration, and social progress. As a leading company in the telecommunications industry, ZTE actively embraces transformation by transitioning from connectivity to a “Connectivity + Computing” under its strategy of “All in AI, AI for All”.

AI and telecommunications are merging to redefine how networks think, adapt, and scale. One expert in AI field, believes this transformation is accelerating smarter systems, stronger computing power, and deeper international collaboration. As one of the leading operators in Brazil, the Director of Network Deployment and Operations at Claro Brazil, said operators need to provide continuous technological innovation to achieve sustainable improvements in network quality and service efficiency in this evolving landscape. AI is developing as an important tool for data-driven decision making to transition from an area of expertise-based reliance to precise and intelligent operations.Expert from the Project Management Institute (PMI) also shared his perspective in the speech.

At the conference, Unifique, UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina), and ZTE signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The three parties will deepen collaboration around broadband network technology innovation and talent training, accelerate technology implementation and local telecommunications talent training, to inject new momentum into the digital economy in Brazil.

ZTE is continuously deepening the development of its digital and intelligent network service system in Europe and Latin America. Through technological empowerment and policy support, it is consistently building a regional  capability ecosystem, providing end-to-end solutions for partners and creating more value for customers.

Looking ahead, ZTE will continue to practice the “ultimate service” concept. With service innovation as the engine and ecosystem co-construction as the cornerstone, ZTE will work with global partners to build an open and win-win ecosystem, and develop evolvable, sustainable, and intelligent network and computing infrastructures to inject more power into the high-quality digital economy development in Europe and Latin America.

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Powered by ByteDance’s large language model, the assistant enables users to voice activate tasks including content searches and ticket booking.

ZTE’s Nubia M153 smartphone will be the first device to feature the new tool, positioned as a prototype device priced at CNY3,499 ($495). The handset is available for pre-order in limited quantities.

According to South China Morning Post, the Android device features a 6.78-inch display, a 50MP rear triple camera system and runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. A dedicated side-mounted AI button activates Doubao.

However, ByteDance and ZTE cautioned the software “cannot guarantee the functional completeness of a mature mobile product” and may lag behind flagship devices. The pair committed to fortnightly updates through March 2026.

According to Reuters, ByteDance said it has no plans to develop its own smartphones and is in discussions with multiple vendors to integrate its AI assistant across additional models in the future.

TikTok-parent ByteDance has emerged as a leading AI player in China on the back of its chatbot Doubao, which reportedly recorded 159 million monthly active users in October, well ahead of rival offerings from Tencent and DeepSeek.

Last year, Apple held preliminary talks with ByteDance and Tencent to explore integrating their generative AI capabilities into iPhones sold in China.

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SVP, President of Overseas of ZTE presents at MWC Doha in the session: Powering Intelligent Economies: From Infrastructure to Impact

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This session explores how intelligent network optimization, AI-native service delivery, and differentiated user experiences can unlock new revenue streams beyond traditional data traffic. It will also highlight case studies on practical strategies for operators to thrive in the 5G-A × AI era.

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Net profit in the nine-month period sank 32.7 per cent year-on-year to CNY5.3 billion ($746.6 million), impacted by a 30 per cent jump in operating costs to CNY69.8 billion.

Operating revenue grew 11.6 per cent to CNY100.5 billion, with a 130 per cent increase in sales in its government-enterprise segment more than offsetting pressure on its carrier networks business. The vendor highlighted a softening of infrastructure investment in China, driven by a continued slowdown in 5G spending.

The company said its consumer business maintained stable growth.

Revenue from computing-related businesses rose 180 per cent and accounted for 25 per cent of total sales. Within this segment, server and storage sales jumped by 250 per cent, while data centre revenue rose 120 per cent.

ZTE did not break down full sales data for its business units in its Q3 earnings report. The company typically provides a broader view in its full-year and interim reports.

The company earmarked CNY17.8 billion, or 18 per cent of total revenue, to R&D during the period.

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Now in its 12^th consecutive year and 13^th edition in total, ZTE’s Global Summit and User Congress was held this month in Milan, Italy, under the overarching theme: Expanding Intelligence, Creating Possibilities.

Representatives from global leaders, including the GSMA, top operators and enterprise pioneers, gathered in the city to outline their visions for the future of digital connectivity, with Zhang outlining the importance of the discussions in exploring “the optimal path for integrating artificial and digital transformation”.

“We sought to build a thriving ecosystem of digital-intelligent capabilities, limitless cooperation and pursued diverse forces to reshape industries and drive social innovation,” Zhang noted.

Network x AI
The big show was centred around four main topics – connectivity upgrades, computing power advancement, home intelligence and the consumer use case, all driven by ZTE’s AI for All vision.

Zhang emphasised that the next two to three years will be a critical period for AI to move from pilot exploration to large scale deployment, bringing profound changes to the entire ICT industry.

Reflecting back, Zhang said the AI revolution was mainly sparked in 2022 with ChatGPT and since then other breakthroughs like DeepSeek have emerged. This has led to ICT investment shifting from “network” to “computing power”, with ZTE responding quickly.

“AI-related upgrades drive network capability upgrades,” he said, highlighting ZTE’s C band and L band fully integrated OTN solution which directly addresses the pain point of explosive growth in AI-driven network traffic. Through this integration, ZTE is able to handle immense transmission pressure and network traffic increases on optical networks.

In this area, Zhang (pictured, below) also pointed to the company’s Intelligent Computing Super Node System which has won several awards, “underscoring our continued efforts in this domain”.

ZTE’s strategy is based on an “All in AI, AI for All” mantra, which considers a changing market with products being adjusted accordingly to ensure the company is able to accelerate on the need to integrate AI and ICT.

On the RAN side, Zhang explained ZTE was leveraging AI’s powerful computing capabilities for accurate and real predications, while introducing AI agents to improve spectrum, operations, maintenance and energy efficiency.  

“At the same time, networks are shifting from being network-centric to user-centric which greatly enhances user experience. To drive this forward, we’ve already set up an independent product line, built a big data platform and developed a range of supporting tools,” he said.

Coming to the core, the message from Zhang is clear – ZTE is AI Core. The company is working to implement cutting-edge technologies with large language models (LLM), communications-specific large models and digital twins to drive the evolution of the core network from cloud-native to AI-native.

“It helps operators transform from pipe vendors to value enablers.”

On the consumer side, ZTE has accelerated the full-deployment of a full scenario smart ecosystem “through a forward-looking, full range portfolio of AI-enabled devices”.

Zhang said: “This strategy yielded a year-on-year increase exceeding 30 per cent in international smartphone revenue, alongside a consistently robust growth momentum in the cloud PC business.”

AI for individuals, society
With product advancement on one side, Zhang emphasised that the AI for All strategy encompasses technological development that benefits both individuals and society.

Centre to this is Digital-Real Integration, which can transform the enormous potential of AI technology into tangible value that drives progress in the real economy and improves human life.

In addition to advance on-device applications for individual user terminals, Zhang added ZTE was focused on four key AI-powered solution for the home: AI home network, AI home computing, AI smart screen and AI home robot, all designed to build a full AI scenario.

“As reflected in our summit slogan – Expanding Intelligence, Creating Possibilities – we eagerly anticipate the possibilities that AI will unlock in the next 2-3 years,” said Zhang.

Four pillars of innovation
Being a leader in AI and across the technology stack is rooted in innovative leadership, which Zhang says is a “core imperative for technology enterprises”.

He believes being a leader is centred in a systematic innovation framework, built on four pillars that achieve value creation in a closed loop, powerfully supporting global expansion and long-term competitiveness.

The first pillar, Strategic Persistence and Technological Layout, centres on sustaining high-intensity R&D investment to navigate industry cycles. “By pioneering the dual-drive strategy of Connectivity + Computing Power, we have secured an early position in the AI and intelligent computing fields.”

In total, Zhang said ZTE holds approximately 94,000 global patent applications, of which 5,500 are core AI, “establishing a solid technical foundation for the development of 5G-Advanced, 6G and intelligent computing”.

Pillar number two is a focus on serving market drivers and promoting inclusive innovation. The executive said ZTE modularises AI capabilities accumulated from large-scale projects to significantly lower the digitalisation threshold for small and medium-sized enterprises. “Through the Digital Nebula platform, we collaborate with over 1,000 partners to provide full-scale services, an approach that has resulted in a doubling of revenue in our government and enterprise business, validating its market value.”

The third pillar is an emphasis on an open ecosystem and further collaboration. Despite complexities of the global market, ZTE is dedicated to an open and win-win ecosystem strategy. Zhang pointed to partnerships with global tech giants like Alibaba, Qualcomm and Nvidia, along with thousands of other partners in critical areas like cloud-network integration, terminal intelligence and green data centres.

Last but not least, Zhang highlighted the importance of the correct internal practices to ensure innovative leadership. He said organisational agility ensures efficiency, particularly in the AI era with continuous evolution through integration of digital agile development and AI LLMs.

For Zhang, ZTE’s innovation has “successfully transcended mere technological leadership, evolving into a systemic, comprehensive capability encompassing strategy, market, fit, ecosystem and organisation.”

A global game
A key element of Zhang’s role is collaborating and expanding with global telecoms operators, as it continues an overseas expansion drive.

Over the next five years, Zhang said in light of accelerated digital and intelligent transformation, rising clean energy investment and general expansion of Chinese companies overseas, ZTE’s growth opportunities are aligned strongly with regional demands.

“Through in-depth analysis, we have identified Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East as the core engines for our overseas growth over the next five years.”

Guided by the company’s principles, Zhang said there would be focus on pursuing sustainable, high-quality and scaled breakthroughs across “high potential emerging international markets”.

In Southeast Asia, ZTE sees a stronghold for comprehensive operations, with countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand accelerating 5G and fibre optic deployment amidst rapidly growing demand for cloud services.

Across Latin America, Zhang sees the potential for breakthroughs in key countries. “We will leverage major countries like Brazil and Mexico as breakthrough points to achieve scaled deployments of our wireless business.

For the Middle East, Zhang said opportunities are being driven by the national strategies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with the construction of AI infrastructure, smart cities and new energy projects actively advancing. This will lead to deeper cooperation with major operators and establishment of regional benchmark projects.

And with the African market evolving towards optical cables, international data centres (IDC) and new energy, ZTE will look to seize opportunities in countries like South Africa and Nigeria to deploy optical access and new tower scenarios.

Through localised operations, ecosystem partnerships and multi-business synergy, ZTE will ensure “sustained, scaled breakthroughs and high-quality growth in overseas markets.”

Leading global brand image
To continue this international expansion drive, Zhang’s role extends further to building up ZTE’s brand and wider trust within governments, regulators and other key stakeholders.

He said the company is undertaking a series of proactive initiatives to enhance brand awareness, reputation and value to earn the trust across the ecosystem.

Again, taking a four-pronged approach, ZTE said its trust-building strategy revolves around: strategic positioning; sustainable development; a trustworthy foundation; and talent-driven growth.

Initiatives include capitalising on digital and low-carbon trends, a commitment to green innovation and sustainable development, a global management system supported by over 400 dedicated compliance personnel and finally an R&D team that comprises 48.5 per cent of its overall workforce.

“Through systematic practices in strategic foresight, responsibility and governance, and talent investment, ZTE is progressively building a global brand image characterised by technological leadership, standardised governance, and strong accountability. This demonstrates our service capabilities and responsible practices across more than 160 countries,” concluded Zhang.

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Marking ZTE’s 40^th anniversary since being founded and the 12^th year of its congress, CEO Xu Ziyang (pictured) urged delegates to use the show to provide the vendor with their suggestions about what the industry needs for the AI era and how it can deliver.

“We need to find the opportunity to win together.”

The executive discussed the company’s networks for AI and AI for networks vision, while explaining the importance of focusing on connectivity and computing as “decoupled systems”, which must integrate.

Staying on the AI theme, he added the industry is beginning to evolve from one centred on “bytes to tokens”, which will ultimately bring new business models for the fore.

“More and more AI applications improve core productivity to make the whole world better,” he concluded.

Necessary
GSMA Ltd CEO John Hoffman hailed ZTE’s work to evolve the industry, including a shift from 5G to 5G-Advanced in more developed markets.

He pointed to the vendor’s deployment of 5G-A at the Asian Games as an example, when the technology connected 600,000 customers and spectators.

Hoffman was keen to emphasise the importance of telecoms connectivity in ensuring the success of AI.

He said ZTE is at the “forefront”, pointing to AI-related use cases including a green telecoms cloud and a fraud detection service, developed with China Telecom and China Unicom, respectively.

Hoffman also touched on the telecoms usage gap, calling for well-designed policy which addresses the fact that 3.4 billion people globally are not using the mobile internet.

He pointed to positive moves in Argentina and South Africa as examples, where governments have cut taxes on smartphones.

“We call on more governments to follow their lead. Stop taxing smartphones as if they are luxury items. They are not. They are a necessity for life today.”

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In the operator network segment, ZTE explained it mitigated the impact of a domestic 5G capex slowdown by consolidating its core operator business base and achieved steady gains in market share for key products.

Operator network revenue decreased 6.2 per cent to CNY35.1 billion ($4.9 billion), accounting for 49 per cent of total revenue, down from nearly 60 per cent a year earlier. A year ago the segment dropped 8.8 per cent.

Its government and enterprise business unit more than doubled its revenue to CNY19.3 billion, driven in large part by server and storage sales jumping 200 per cent.

Consumer business sales rose 7.6 per cent to CNY17.2 billion, aided by 30 per cent growth in international revenue from its smartphone business.

Domestic revenue grew 17.5 per cent to CNY50.6 billion, representing 70.7 per cent of total sales (up from 68.9 per cent in H1 2024). International sales increased 7.8 per cent to CNY20.9 billion.

Net profit tumbled 17.4 per cent year-on-year to CNY4.1 billion, while total revenue improved 14.5 per cent to CNY71.6 billion. Q1 profit dropped 10.6 per cent to CNY2.4 billion.

R&D expenses were stable year-on-year at CNY12.7 billion and accounted for 18 per cent of operating revenue.

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PRESS RELEASE: ZTE focuses on tackling the industry’s “Inverted Triangle Dilemma” on three levels—developing efficient infrastructure, enabling efficient intelligence enhancement, and accelerating impact through efficiency—collectively driving the efficient and green development of AI

Under the core strategy of “AI for All”, ZTE has deeply integrated AI with its ICT technologies and products to build full-stack intelligent solutions

ZTE Corporation announced that Cui Li, the company’s Chief Development Officer (CDO), was invited to attend the workshop themed “Navigating the Intersect of AI, Environment and Energy for a Sustainable Future” at the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 held in Geneva. During the session, she delivered a speech titled “Accelerating Progress Towards SDGs with AI-powered New Paradigm”, where she shared ZTE’s innovative efforts to drive efficient and green AI, and to deepen the integration of AI with ICT technologies and products, with the goal of accelerating AI accessibility and low-carbon transformation of society.

Cui Li observed that the latest AI surge, driven by large language models, is sweeping the world at incredible speed. This rapid advance is accompanied by soaring computing demands and surging energy consumption. Achieving sustainable AI has therefore become an industry-wide imperative, and the key lies in defining a clear and efficient pathway. Framing the issue from two perspectives—”Energy for AI” and “AI for Energy”—she outlined how companies can scale AI in a greener, more efficient manner and, in turn, harness AI to drive an energy transition that cuts costs, improves efficiency, and supports a low-carbon future.

In terms of “Energy for AI”, Cui Li emphasized that the industry faces an  “Inverted Triangle Dilemma” and efficiency holds the key to solving the dilemma. In response, ZTE is tackling the issue on three levels—developing efficient infrastructure, enabling efficient intelligence enhancement, and accelerating impact through efficiency—collectively driving the efficient and green development of AI.

With respect to “AI for Energy”, she highlighted that under the core strategy of “AI for All”, ZTE has deeply integrated AI with its ICT technologies and products to build full-stack intelligent solutions. The company is now deploying AI capabilities across industrial, household and consumer scenarios, enabling cost-efficiency, operational gains and a lower-carbon trajectory for the wider economy.

AI for Good is organized by ITU in partnership with over 40 UN Sister Agencies and co-convened with the Government of Switzerland, committed to identifying innovative AI applications, building skills and standards, and advancing partnerships to solve global challenges. Since the inaugural AI for Good Global Summit in 2017, which brought together over 400 top-minds in AI, the platform has grown far beyond its origins, evolving into a vibrant multi-stakeholder community including governments, academia, industry, civil society and UN.

Your excellences, ladies and gentlemen, good day! I’m Cui Li from ZTE, and it’s a pleasure to speak at this summit. It was really inspiring to hear the previous speakers on various ways of harnessing AI to do something good for our sustainable future. Today I’d like to share how we can accelerate progress towards SDGs with AI-powered new paradigm.

AI has been around for over 70 years. But in the last two years, things have changed fast—think of ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and other emerging large language models. They’re amazing, but they also bring big challenges, especially for sustainability. For instance, how do we possibly keep advancing AI without hurting our planet? That’s what I want to share with this group.

Let’s start with asking ourselves a fundamental question: Is the future of AI ultimately bound by energy? People may view it differently. But whatever the answer, one thing is for sure, energy is the huge issue.

As we all know, for the sustainable development of AI, we need two things: lots of data and massive computing—that is, the constant pursuit of computing efficiency against ever larger models. And for every zettabyte of data—that’s a billion trillion bytes—we need about 300,000 servers. The scaling laws continue to drive AI forward, not just in training but now into inference, together with the rapid growth in service scale and real-world application, all placing huge demands on hardware and resources.

As AI models get increasingly bigger, they become more energy intensive as well. So, sustainability should be a goal for all of us. Then what should we do? At ZTE, we believe that the answer is efficiency. Now that we’ve established the “what”, let’s dive deeper into the more important “how”.

Our “how” includes two parts: energy for AI, and AI for energy.

Let’s begin with energy for AI.

The evolution of AI has always been driven by three forces: algorithms, data, and computing. But its future depends on something we often overlook: the environment it thrives in.

Today, we face what I call the “Inverted Triangle Dilemma”.

As you can see at the bottom, high-quality data, which is definitely our most critical resource, is running out, forcing us to turn to synthetic ones.

At the algorithm and computing levels, we’re facing efficiency limits, resource shortages, and technical challenges.

And beyond these, we must also focus on the health and security of our industry chain, alignment with business demands and scenarios, and challenges in talent, funding, and of course–energy consumption.

The key to solving this dilemma? Efficiency. Not as an afterthought, but as our core strategy. And we have built our approach on three levels.

First, developing efficient infrastructure—redefining infrastructure at all levels: die, chip, server, network, and DC.

Second, enabling efficient intelligence enhancement—developing algorithms that learn smarter, data that multiplies value, and AI technologies that bring them together to speed up tasks.

And third, accelerating impact through efficiency—because technology means nothing if it can’t reach the businesses and individuals that need it most.

Alone, each level stands strong. But together? They create something extraordinary—a new paradigm where AI doesn’t just grow, but grows responsibly and greenly.

Something a bit more technical, let’s look at developing efficient infrastructure. Bits cannot exist without atoms. Every software application—including AI—runs on hardware. If they’re not efficient, energy is wasted. The ICT industry has already established many best practices. So let me highlight just two examples.

The first one is about high-speed networks. They connect everything—dies, chips, servers, and data centers. Faster connections mean less energy wasted. At ZTE, we’re building advanced networks to make AI computing more efficient.

Another example is our intelligent data centers. They are designed to solve three challenges: energy hunger, density limits, and mixed workloads. A good case in point? ZTE’s adaptive cooling system, smart enough to handle any scenario, and efficient enough to save energy and costs.

How to fully utilize the capacities of those fancy infrastructure? Let’s focus on enabling efficient intelligence enhancement. For large AI models, size isn’t everything—getting larger doesn’t always mean getting smarter. And we may know a law in the tech world—what Andy gives, Bill takes away. So, besides upgrading infrastructure all the way, we must optimize data and algorithms.

Think of data as soil. Its volume, purity, and security decide how well AI as a plant can grow. To improve data, we build sample libraries, automate labeling, and use knowledge graphs for AI to connect and understand facts. This makes our datasets more complete, accurate, and adaptable.

Next, our algorithms are like the roots: they turn data’s nutrients into thoughts and decisions. By adopting techniques, and through model compressing, pruning, and distilling, we cut training and inference time and energy usage by half or more.

We also have extra tools that further boost capabilities: Chain of Thoughts and Tree of Thoughts to enable stronger reasoning, multimodal architecture to go beyond just one way of sensing, and others.

Last but not least, we’re integrating AI into the real world. Digital twins mirror reality in real time, spatial intelligence helps AI understand environments, and embodied AI, with breakthroughs in sensing, decision-making, and motion control, makes it possible for robots to act effectively in the physical world.

Finally, accelerating impact through efficiency—how to make AI work well in real-world scenarios and businesses. It’s about solving problems, creating value, and building a data flywheel. For progress and sustainability in human society, AI’s production value far outweighs its emotional appeal. We hope this AI wave drives an industrial revolution and brings benefits to all. This is essentially AI for good.

And at ZTE, we put this vision into practice with three key initiatives:

• First, introducing GPUs from diverse suppliers, such as Nvidia and Cambricon, for intelligent computing, and interconnecting servers based on protocols like OLink.
• Second, developing open and composable AI infrastructure with products like AiCube, solving the issues of cost, latency, and security.
• Third, building low-code AI platforms such as ZTE AIS and Co-Sight, with 54 open-source models built in, adopting AI for good and for all.

By decoupling training and inference and using modular design, we enable flexible resource allocation and rapid deployment, accelerating the deep integration of AI with the real economy.

We’ve done enough for the concept of energy for AI, it’s time to briefly talk about AI for energy.

Throughout history, economies rise and fall as a result of humans battling for resources. But now we have a game changer—AI. It not only boosts the efficiency of existing resources, but also generates new ones, driving progress across industries and societies.

At ZTE, our core strategy is “AI for All”. We integrate AI with ICT to build a full-stack intelligent computing solution for lower cost, higher efficiency, and lower carbon emissions.

So far, our solutions have been applied to various industries such as steel, education, automotive, finance, and telecom. In total, we have extended our expertise to 18 sectors with over 100 best practices.

In home scenarios, our AI-powered network, computing system, smart display, and robot work together to offer a seamless, secure, and intelligent experience.

For consumers, ZTE puts forward the “AI Together” concept based on terminal-edge-cloud collaboration. We introduce multiple AI models on ZTE Nebula platform to deliver personalized services on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, creating a more intelligent and easier lifestyle for all.

Moving forward, ZTE will further improve its products and partnerships, and continue to uphold “AI for All” to create an inclusive, low-carbon future together.

To conclude, I believe technology itself holds neutrality—it depends on how we use it. AI can now think deeper and handle complex tasks, but the real risk is not being replaced—it’s being absent. Progress has never come from intelligence alone, but from human courage, compassion, and commitment. These are the qualities that silicon cannot create. We must believe in humanity. With love, wisdom, and collaboration, we have always overcome challenges—and we will continue to do so as we build a greener and brighter future.

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This accolade not only recognizes ZTE’s continuous innovation in the digital technology sector but also affirms its benchmarking role and industry influence in advancing global digital inclusion and sustainable development.

WSIS is co-hosted by authoritative organizations, including International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It aims to promote the sustainable development of the global information society through information and communication technologies (ICTs). The WSIS Champion Award, as a significant accolade of the summit, undergoes multiple rounds of rigorous selection, including online voting and expert reviews, to choose outstanding achievements from thousands of projects submitted. These projects represent the best practices worldwide in leveraging ICTs to improve people’s livelihoods.

ZTE’s “Signal Reach Program” wins WSIS 2025 Champion Award

ZTE’s “Signal Reach Program”, centered on the core concepts of “ultra-fast connectivity, green energy, and inclusive sharing”, addresses the challenge of weak digital infrastructure in remote areas of Africa by delivering an end-to-end solution—from base station deployment to terminal services. The project team innovatively combined modular base station technology with solar power systems to develop EcoSite base stations, capable of being deployed in just seven days. These base stations feature ZTE’s self-developed 2TR Tri-band UBR technology, reducing network coverage costs by 70% and boosting network expansion efficiency by 60% through a one-step upgrade design.

In combination with the EcoEnergy solution, the program ensures a stable and reliable green energy supply for remote regions, further optimizing energy use with iEnergy management software. This reduces operating costs and improves system sustainability. In practical application in Liberia, the project team successfully deployed 128 base stations within three months, delivering stable mobile communication services to more than 580,000 rural users.

Remarkably, the “Signal Reach Program” not only focuses on the popularization of digital technology but also actively promotes cultural diversity. By providing stable and reliable digital connectivity to remote areas of Africa, the program enables local communities to better integrate into the global information society, fosters exchanges and understanding among different cultures, and promotes the development of cultural diversity across the continent.

Summer Chen, Vice President of ZTE, participated in the Partner2Connect (P2C) session at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event

During the WSIS+20 High-Level Event at the summit, Summer Chen, Vice President of ZTE, also participated in the impactful Partner2Connect (P2C) session. She highlighted ZTE’s pride in being among the first P2C Champions recognized by the ITU for its leadership in driving global digitalization efforts. Ms. Chen reaffirmed ZTE’s steadfast commitment to advancing digital transformation and promoting sustainable development worldwide.

Moving forward, ZTE will continue to drive progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), foster global digitalization, and empower communities around the world through inclusive and innovative technologies.

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Autonomous Network Planning: AI-Powered Resource Optimization
Traditional PON networks often faced inefficiencies due to poor resource allocation, with some ports underutilized while others were congested — an issue that was difficult to address manually. The ZTE autonomous network solution uses AI-driven traffic analysis and user growth forecasting to automatically identify underused or overloaded PON ports. By visualizing optimization strategies, the solution eliminates the need for manual intervention, activating dormant resources and increasing PON port utilization by 23%. This innovation demonstrates how AI shifts network planning from a reactive to a proactive approach.

Autonomous Network Operation: AI-Driven Fault Diagnosis and Self-Healing

– Fast Fault Diagnosis and Self-Healing at the Service Level
As home broadband usage increases, delays in fault resolution due to manual root cause analysis have become a major challenge. The ZTE solution leverages intelligent OLT cards to collect end-to-end data (from the home to the content source), enabling precise identification of root causes for quality degradation across seven network segments. The solution automatically resolves soft failures, like Wi-Fi configuration issues, reducing fault recovery time by 30% and minimizing on-site maintenance visits.

– LLM-Enabled Natural Language Fault Diagnosis
Traditionally, content source and user analysis with low QoE relied heavily on senior engineers, which limited efficiency. By integrating LLM (Large Language Model) and Text-to-SQL, the ZTE autonomous network solution enables natural language interactions for data mining and root cause analysis. It generates diagnostic reports and intuitive interfaces, reducing technical barriers and significantly boosting operational efficiency.

Autonomous Network Optimization: Proactive Quality Enhancement & Energy Savings

– From KPI to Customer Experience Management (CEM)
Traditional network KPIs don’t always reflect the true user experience, as many dissatisfied users remain silent. The ZTE CEM platform, combined with OLT’s built-in intelligent cards, leverages big data and AI to provide detailed user experience profiles. By breaking down data silos and utilizing knowledge graphs, the solution proactively identifies users experiencing quality degradation and uncovers the root causes, resulting in a 20% reduction in customer complaints.

– Intelligent Energy Management
As OLT scale expands, manual energy-saving efforts become increasingly prone to errors. The autonomous network solution analyzes PON traffic and equipment energy consumption to generate automated energy-saving plans, achieving 95% automation and reducing average equipment power consumption by 10%. This solution strikes the perfect balance between performance and eco-friendly operations.

Autonomous Network Marketing: AI-Driven Precision Marketing
Traditional marketing efforts often had a success rate of just 3%, failing to capture personalized customer needs. The ZTE solution leverages customer experience data to create AI-driven “diamond model” user profiles, which automatically recommend tailored packages. Through testing and validation, the marketing success rate can be improved to 10%-30% using AI-powered user profiles, demonstrating how AI transforms marketing from a one-size-fits-all approach to a precision-driven strategy, enhancing both user satisfaction and revenue.

Moving forward, ZTE will intensify its development of AI agents, LLMs, and other cutting-edge technologies, driving innovation in autonomous networks. ZTE aims to lead the digital transformation of telecoms and set new industry standards for intelligent, efficient, and sustainable network operations.

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As a global industry association, the TM Forum launched the ODA program in 2017. This initiative is designed to assist digital service providers in accelerating innovation, launching new digital services, constructing more agile and flexible system architectures, and providing guiding frameworks and reference architectures for key sectors.

ZTE has been an active participant in formulating ODA standards. Collaborating closely with TM Forum, ZTE has made significant contributions to enhancing the ODA framework and driving digital service development for operators. Furthermore, ZTE is a member of the TM Forum ODA Manifesto, having completed thirty-two Open API certifications, thereby achieving a Platinum Certification Member. In addition to these achievements, ZTE has also won multiple Catalyst Project awards.

Mr. Zheng Peng, Vice President of ZTE, received the ODA trophy at Digital Transformation World (DTW) 2025 in Copenhagen. “ZTE highly values the rapid integration capability of ODA standard interfaces, which has delivered substantial value to operators,” said Zheng Peng. “ZTE’s AIR Net autonomous networks solution integrates the ODA framework, leveraging three interconnected engines for AI large language model engine, big data engine, and digital twin engine, and ZTE’s open-source Co-Sight Framework, enabling multiple Copilot Assistants and scenario-specific Agent Experts. ZTE’s AIR Net solution has been successfully implemented in various scenarios, including network energy saving, automated intelligent troubleshooting, and user complaint reduction.”

Against the industry trend of “multi-cloud and multi-vendor”, ODA certification has emerged as a competitive edge for ZTE, endowing it with more open and interoperable product capabilities. Diverging from traditional closed architectures, ZTE integrates Nebula telecom large model and ODA to unify technical languages, internally reconstructing API-based atomic capability repositories and establishing a modular product construction model. Through Open API certifications and ODA compliance, ZTE extends capability openness and invocation to different vendors, integrating into the cross-vendor open ecosystem constructed by TM Forum. This signifies a shift from “product thinking” to “ecological thinking”, laying a solid foundation for open architecture competition in the 6G era.

ZTE remains committed to further strengthening its collaboration with TM Forum and industry partners to advance the development and application of ODA, thereby providing enhanced digital transformation services to customers worldwide.

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AI is on the brink of a new era, poised to redefine the future of technology, while 5G is driving smarter, more sustainable services for businesses, governments and communities.

GSMA director general Vivek Badrinath, at the helm for his first MWC Shanghai, told Mobile World Live as AI accelerates at an unprecedented pace, “it has evolved from a frontier of innovation into a powerful catalyst for transformation across vertical industries”.

In China, he noted from the start 5G has been prioritised as a key enabler for industrial innovation, prompting widespread demand for private network solutions across sectors such as manufacturing, ports and logistics.

He suggested the vast scale of China’s industrial base ensures a constant flow of private 5G deployments and operational learning, which significantly reduce costs and drive efficiencies.

Thought leadership
MWC Shanghai 2025 runs from 18 June to 20 June at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) and Kerry Hotel Pudong, featuring around 400 speakers across some 53 keynotes, summits and GSMA programmes.

More than a dozen industry summits cover themes including agentic AI, AI powered telco, GSMA Open Gateway, Satellite and NTN, and 5G monetisation.

The opening keynotes feature industry tech leaders, including AI Club Asia MD Bo Gao, China Mobile chair Yang Jie, China Tower chair Zhiyong Zhang, Chongqing Changan Automobile chair Zhu Huarong, Honor CEO James Li, Huawei rotating chairman Eric Xu, Singtel CEO for International Digital Services Anna Yip and ZTE chief development officer Cui Li.

Badrinath will open the Digital Leader Programme, joined by thought leaders from across the ecosystem to explore how AI can move beyond generic use cases to deeply integrate with real-world sectors. “I’m looking forward to following the theme Unlocking AI’s Potential to Drive Industry Transformation.”

He noted the GSMA also is excited to host the 2025 World Robot Contest Qualifier for the first time, adding: “It’s where emerging tech talent goes head-to-head in a qualifying round of what’s regarded as the ‘Olympics’ of the robotics world.”

The DG noted 4YFN returns with “renewed energy and a bold vision for innovation” and is positioned to be Asia Pacific’s most exciting innovation and start-ups event, connecting global investors and up-and-coming enterprises.

On the exhibition floor, built up across five halls, Badrinath said he is looking forward to visiting the new GSMA Innovation Frontier Zone where “you can immerse yourself in truly next-gen technology – watch out for dynamic robotic performances featuring humanoid robots, air taxi demos and robotaxi experiential VR”.

IoT focus
New this year, the event is co-located with IOTE, a premier IoT industry showcase, bringing together cutting-edge technologies, innovative services and global business leaders. With a focus spanning RFID, sensors, communication modules, edge computing, visual IoT and cloud platforms, IOTE offers a deep dive into the future of connected industries.

In another first at MWC Shanghai, the GSMA Policy Leaders Forum brings together global policymakers and industry leaders to discuss pressing policy and regulatory issues. Key topics will include the impact and opportunities of AI, closing the digital divide as well as mobile and AI’s convergence – and the digital transformation incentives needed for the growth of digital nations.

In its second year at the event, the Connected Industries Programme offers an expanded line-up of exhibitions, sharing use-cases across fintech, manufacturing and smart mobility.

Future Tech Hall returns to Hall N4, hosting innovative companies demonstrating a wide range of future technologies.

Other first-time exhibitors are Droidup, Leju Robotics, Shanghai Zhiyuan Innovation Technology, Shanghai Spacecom and Unitree.

In total, there are more than 400 exhibitors, sponsors, and partners.

And the Asia Mobile Awards take place on 19 June, with three new awards honouring SME innovation, best AI innovation and best mobile innovation for climate action in the region.

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Delivering the keynote at the GSMA M360 Eurasia event, which ran from 21 to 22 May in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Zhang introduced the company’s blueprint for building intelligent economies, centred around investing in digital infrastructure, creating intelligent business models and ensuring people-centric, ethical AI deployment.

To overcome the many challenges in moving towards an intelligent economy, he proposed the ‘5i’ concept as a guiding framework; covering inspiration, intelligence, innovation, inclusion and impact.

Through the ‘5i’ idea, he explained ZTE creates new value across industries by embedded advanced AI capabilities into its entire ecosystem — from RAN networks and intelligent computing infrastructure to smart manufacturing and next-gen devices.

Global AI investment increased 25.5 percent to $252.3 billion in 2024, growing 13-fold over the past decade.

“For developing regions, AI can become a tool for equity, making technology a driving force for inclusivity and progress,” Zhang stated.

Eurasia focus
The digital economy has tremendous potential in the Eurasian region. Last year, 5G connections accounted for 25 percent of global connections, compared with just 1 percent in Eurasia, data from GSMA Intelligence showed.

The region has an ambitious target of raising 5G penetration to 41 percent by 2030. 

Zhang said there is significant room for growth in mobile penetration in the region, with 4G adoption at only 74 percent.

To achieve that goal, “it is necessary to have network evolution products and solutions that are suitable for the region and offer high cost-effectiveness.”

ZTE’s broad portfolio (integrating FDD Massive MIMO, dynamic spectrum sharing, and AI into 4G networks) can help operators accelerate the pace of network development, evolve towards 5G networks and protect operators’ core assets such as spectrum, network and users, he explained.

He added Eurasian nations are embracing digitalisation as a catalyst for socio-economic growth, aligning with global trends.

Uzbekistan has positioned itself at the forefront of this movement, implementing ambitious reforms to become a regional IT hub through nationwide broadband expansion, accelerated high-speed internet and universal mobile connectivity.

Market share
In the region, Zhang noted ZTE has maintained long-term strategic cooperation with major telecoms operators, particularly in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The vendor has more than a 50 percent share of network deployments in Uzbekistan’s top two telecoms operators Uzbektelecom and Ucell, supporting the government’s Digital Uzbekistan 2030 initiative. In Kyrgyzstan it holds a similar market share with the top two operators Nur Telecom and Megacom.

Uzbekistan’s population is growing rapidly, with nearly 55 percent of its population under the age of 30.

Mobile penetration is only 78 percent, which is forecast to exceed 120 percent in the next five years. The average number of base stations lags behind the industry average, and the average number of users per base station is twice that of many countries.

It is expected that the number of mainstream operator sites will reach more than 10,000 in the next three years, registering a growth rate of more than 60 percent.

ZTE’s projects in the region mainly focus on the infrastructure for the intelligent economy, including network connectivity, green energy and terminals. Commercial 5G contracts have been secured.

The market landscape for cloud-based core network products and 5G networks continues to improve, he said, while the company is one of the main suppliers of terminal products in the two countries.

Zhang stated: “We believe the future of Eurasia’s digital economy lies in inclusive innovation. We are helping shape a more connected, empowered and intelligent future for the region through strategic partnerships, AI-driven solutions and deep local engagement.”

He added mobile investment is not just about numbers, “it’s about lighting the path to a more connected, efficient, intelligent and empowered world.”

Common obstacles
ZTE believes insufficient network coverage, high terminal costs and an unstable power supply are the three major challenges slowing efforts to bridge the digital divide.

To overcome these challenges in remote areas, ZTE developed a Lego-style modular construction platform and introduced green energy. In cooperation with Orange, it completed the construction of 128 sites spanning 1,100km in Liberia within just three months.

For affordable terminals, ZTE launched a MiFi product  as well as entry-level 4G mobile phones, including the ZTE Blade A35 core and various industry terminals.

The company also is using AI to improve the energy efficiency of devices and at the network level to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions.

Its Go Green initiative provides end-to-end network solutions to reduce energy consumption. These have been deployed in more than 1.5 million sites and 250,000 data centre cabinets globally, enabling operators to reduce power usage by some 10 billion kilowatt-hours annually.

Over the next five to ten years, he said ZTE aims to work with more than 2,000 industrial partners to achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction target that is consistent with the pathway of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

Powered by AI
Zhang noted ZTE has integrated AI capabilities into all network products across various lines, creating an AI-native platform.

Its AI RAN helps operators develop new business paradigms based on heterogeneous computing. He believes its AIR RAN is driving a revolution in heterogeneous computing, fuelled by NodeEngine (a computing base station), UniEngine (an all-in-one platform) and the AirEngine (an intelligent computing engine), empowering base stations with native-AI capabilities.

He added this not only delivers an exceptional user experience but also achieves a remarkable improvement in energy and operations and maintenance (O&M) efficiency.

The company’s AI core combines AI infrastructure and capabilities with all core network elements, services and management. It opens up network capabilities to consumer and enterprise applications, enabling the transformation from cloud native to AI native, and helping operators introduce new value growth points.

AI PON adds AI analysis to the networks and services, integrating AI capabilities into PON networks and bringing computing power down to the access network. It upgraded the network from a traditional tunnel channel to an experience-driven one, helping home and business users achieve differentiated services and conduct optimal algorithm optimisation.

ZTE’s AI Haul combines network routers with AI edge computing, enabling operators to meet edge inference requirements. It can increase the inference speed by three to five times, reduce costs by 30 percent and improve the accuracy rate by 75 percent.

For enterprise services, AI Haul can be quickly deployed in different scenarios and is a new way for operators to increase revenue. The solution was shortlisted for the Best Cloud Solution at the MWC Barcelona 2025 GLOMO Awards.

Winning formula
Zhang noted AI inspires various industries by supporting their digital and intelligent transformation, detailing a few examples from its home market.

In Nanjing, its CNY20 billion ($2.8 billion) smart factory, deployed with a range of 5G capabilities in partnership with China Mobile, manufactures base stations, servers and storage products. The facility uses an industrial large model to streamline ordering, speeding up scheduling times by 80 per cent and improving the efficiency of process document writing by ten-times.

At Suzhou Modern Wharf, through the collaboration of large and small models, without significantly increasing the inference cost, the number of false alarms was reduced from several hundred times a day to a single-digit number, and the missed alarm rate is now less than 1 percent.

ZTE worked with China Mobile to jointly launch a multi-agent collaboration solution to improve O&M. The project achieved precise understanding and intelligent decision-making for complex O&M scenarios, significantly enhancing network self-adaptation capabilities.

In March ZTE introduced the DeepSeek AiCube application, which has already been applied in fields such as education, healthcare, automotive and disaster prevention.

In cooperation with Zhejiang University, the Zhihai AI Education all-in-one machine was launched to accelerate the popularisation of AI education, while in healthcare AI imaging speeds up diagnosis, enabling patients to receive faster and more accurate medical services.

In the automotive industry, in cooperation with Dongfeng Motor, the application has increased design efficiency by 30 percent and directly doubled the number of creative solutions. State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power used AiCube to launch the industry’s first power grid disaster prevention and mitigation application based on large models.

Moving forward, Zhang said the company will continue accelerating the development of the mobile economy across the Eurasia region through AI-driven innovation. He added it will provide a range of 5G products and services “with high performance and cost-effectiveness, helping countries build new digital infrastructure and promote the digital transformation of various industries.”

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U Mobile CTO Woon Ooi Yuen explained it started the selection process in 2024, with invitations to tender sent to network equipment and software companies from all regions.

“Ultimately, only two Chinese companies responded.”

The operator targets 80 per cent population coverage in 12 months and 90 per cent reach within two years. The company added it plans to increase the number of indoor sites to boost in-building 5G coverage, which is currently limited.

In January, chair Tan Sri Vincent Tan identified Huawei and ZTE as its major 5G equipment suppliers.

Last week, the operator named EdgePoint Infrastructure as preferred infrastructure partner for its nationwide in-building 5G coverage.

U Mobile was awarded the controversial contract to deploy a second wholesale 5G network by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in November 2024.

In January, it lined up financing from CIMB Bank to support the deployment.

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Fang joined ZTE in 1997 and was appointed a non-executive director in 2018.

She was a senior VP at the company from 1998 to 2009, working in sales and playing a leading role for breakthroughs in emerging markets such as India and high-end markets in Europe, the company noted in a statement.

Li was appointed in 2018, along with eight new board members, as the company overhauled its management team to comply with terms set by the US following a settlement with ZTE to lift a ban on US companies selling equipment to the vendor.

Xu Ziyang continues to serve as CEO.

Wang Xiyu, Li Ying and Xie Junshi were appointed EVPs, covering R&D, finance, and operations management and marketing, respectively.

The post ZTE appoints new chair appeared first on Mobile World Live.

James Zhang, SVP, President of MTO BG & International Marketing discusses how ZTE is driving intelligent innovation in its products.

The post Partner Interview: ZTE appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Ni Fei, SVP ZTE Corporation and President of ZTE Mobile Devices explains ZTE’s 2024 milestones and what innovations we can expect this year.

The post Partner Interview ZTE appeared first on Mobile World Live.

As recent events have shown, the strategy has direct consequences on the country’s trade, tech businesses and allies, and, while partially effective in the short run, it is certainly fuelling China’s determination to become self-sufficient in chips.

Just as countries threatened with new tariffs by incoming US President Donald Trump have vowed to retaliate, China is not sitting idly by as the US ups export controls and cuts off supplies of critical components.

Earlier this week, a Chinese stock market regulator opened a probe into Nvidia for allegedly violating anti-monopoly laws.

Last week, China’s Ministry of Commerce banned the export of strategic minerals including gallium germanium and antimony, which have both industrial and military applications, to the US.

The move was followed by four major Chinese industry associations claiming US chips are not safe or reliable and encouraging members to source domestically, after airing their complaints about new restrictions.

While analysts insist there is no truth to the accusation, it clearly shows the efforts China is willing to take to wean itself off Western technologies. If its companies cannot have access to the most sophisticated chips, they will find alternative sources for other components. 

The addition of 136 Chinese companies to the US entity list is the third move by the nation’s Department of Commerce in as many years to tighten mainland companies’ access to chip technology.

Hundreds of Chinese companies have been added to the US list, along with a number in Japan, South Korea and Singapore to close loopholes allowing Chinese companies to import restricted products from those countries.

Richard Windsor, founder of respected technology blog Radio Free Mobile, wrote a number of companies (including those from the US) had been producing equipment outside of the US to avoid previous restrictions, noting the new rules make it more difficult for China to secure equipment capable of manufacturing chips at 20nm and below.

The China Semiconductor Industry Association argued the latest measures once again “undermined the long-standing consensus of fairness, reasonableness and non-discrimination” in the global semiconductor industry, and the purpose of fair trade of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Fear-mongering
Unilateral moves by the US were introduced without presenting a clear danger to telecoms operators’ mobile or core networks much less national security.

In 2018, the administration of then President Trump began increasing pressure on allies to ban equipment from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from their new 5G networks, starting with Australia, highlighting vague security concerns yet providing no specifics of known security breaches with the vendor’s hundreds of customers. 

Former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull was only able to give this flimsy reasoning for supporting a Huawei ban: “in an uncertain world, this is a hedge against contingencies where people who we have friendly relations with, we may not necessarily be friends with in the future”.

Huawei rotating chair at the time Guo Ping simply stated the obvious: the US had “no evidence, nothing” to back the claims.

Far from not being secure, as revealed by CIA whistle blower Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency (NSA) resorted to hacking the servers of Huawei after failing to be able to access its networks. Snowden’s leaks showed the NSA had no problem accessing US operators’ networks, thanks to legal intercept requirements.

Since then, the US continued to strongarm more allies, including New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, the UK and the Netherlands, to back its crackdown on Chinese companies, without giving the companies an opportunity to defend the charges.

Add a proposed ban on TikTok and earmarking billions to fund the replacement of Huawei and ZTE equipment to other ill-advised protectionist initiatives.

Over the past three years, the administration of current US President Joe Biden administration expanded the play book to cover all Chinese companies seeking to import or produce advanced chips and equipment which the US deems a threat to national security since they have military applications.

High bandwidth memory chips, the latest rage with the AI boom, were added in the latest wave of new controls.

No doubt China poses a serious threat to Taiwan, given a vow to reunify the island, but the military use argument for advanced chips carries little weight as any component can be used to make equipment for the armed forces.

In addition, continual moves to squeeze China’s access to global components and limit free trade risks pushing the country’s leadership away from making commitments supporting competitive coexistence.

And arguments Chinese Communist Party rules make its technology champions Huawei, ZTE and SMIC beholden to the government raise the question: aren’t AWS, Microsoft, Cisco and many others with billions of dollars of contracts by the US Department of Defence equally wedded to the government?

Accelerating independence
Huawei defied all types of sanctions in its battle for survival, with its handsets making a rapid comeback over the past 15 months.

In China its share of shipments rose from 11 per cent in Q2 2023 to 18 per cent in Q3, putting it second behind Xiaomi.

Specialist semiconductor market service TechInsights noted in 2023 Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro smartphone showed China was narrowing the technological gap, though the gains were not repeated with the Mate 70 series, with what it branded an “underwhelming performance” of its chipset.

The US strategy is certainly having an impact.

China, however, now can make deep ultraviolet lithography machines and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment filed a patent for extreme ultraviolet equipment, which South China Morning Post reported is still under review, but indicates progress.

Local media also reported ChangXin Memory Technologies started mass production of second-generation HBM chips, two years earlier than previously estimated. Yes, US and South Korean chipmakers are soon moving to the fourth generation, but China is catching up.

Industry pundits generally agree the US curbs have accelerated China’s push to reduce its reliance on imported chips, with some reckoning by as much as five years or more.

Global impact
Let’s not forget China accounts for a large share of US chip exports, which reached $9.6 billion in the first ten months of 2024, and 46 per cent of Qualcomm’s fiscal 2024 revenue, which ran to 29 September.

Qualcomm, Nvidia and Intel have been hit to varying degrees by previous sanctions, which are impacting companies in the sector around the world.

Dutch chip equipment maker ASML expects revenue from China to drop nearly 50 per cent year-on-year in 2024, with the country’s share forecast to fall to about 20 per cent from 48 per cent.

The irony is for most of the past generation, the US consistently argued for freer trade and pushed against protectionism.

In 2001, the nation gave China permanent most-favoured-nation status, putting its companies on a low-tariff regime, spurring a 20-year economic boom.

This all changed under then President Trump nearly eight years ago.

At the WTO’s latest ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi early this year, the group failed to break a long-standing deadlock on new initiatives, stymied by rising trade friction and protectionism between major powers.

Some policy experts would argue the measures are justified by China failing to open its markets, particularly services including banking.

While the sector is in theory open to full non-domestic competition, overseas banks face numerous obstacles including a lack of competitive neutrality and stricter regulatory requirements, keeping their marker share from rising.

But there are other more appropriate avenues to air grievances, including the WTO, which give both parties the opportunity to articulate their cases.

The US government started a fight and is unlikely to claim victory anytime soon.

Windsor lamented the US measures would accelerate an ongoing decoupling and divide the technology sector into two distinct and incompatible parts. “The Balkanisation of the global network inevitably means less growth for the technology sector in the long term.”

The US has underestimated China’s determination to innovate, its vital role in global supply chains and the effect the restrictions have on costs.

Its push for technological self-reliance may have been slowed, but its long-term vision is clearer than ever, thanks in part to US hubris.  

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

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The vote is one of many provisions included in an 1800-page document seen by Reuters, aimed directly at China. The report apparently includes an intelligence assessment on the state of China’s biotechnology capabilities and a look into alleged efforts to avoid US security regulations.

Funding for US’ rip and replace programme has been a hot topic. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Jessica Rosenworcel has long-lobbied for the US government to approve more than $3 billion in funding to remove equipment deemed a security risk.

She stated in May that nearly 40 per cent of participants involved in the programme claimed they could not complete the swap out without additional funding.

She followed up on her comments last week, stating the programme to replace equipment in networks of 126 operators faces a shortfall of around $3 billion and puts “national security and the connectivity of rural consumers who depend on these networks at risk”.

Operators serving less than 10 million customers could be in line to claim expenses for costs incurred in removing kit made by Chinese vendors. A total of $1.9 billion has been allocated to the programme, but the FCC estimates the cost could run up to just shy of $5 billion.

President Joe Biden’s administration asked for $3.1 billion in 2023, but Congress did not approve the request.

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The executive argued the company’s consistent investment of more than 20 per cent of total revenue in R&D over the past few years has put it in a leading position in many product categories.

For example, the latest 5G base station combines components for both the 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz bands in a single AAU and supports 64TR, making it more integrated as well as giving it a larger capacity.

Although investment in traditional connectivity may not be increasing, he said it still has the confidence to grow in the telco sector in Asia Pacific. “We are working to break into new markets and increase our market share across countries where we have made gains.”

Its terminal business in the region is divided into two segments. It supplies smartphones to operators in Japan and Australia, and in other countries sells its device on the open market by working with distributors which sell to retailers.

Although starting from a small base, its sales on the open market is its best performing business, with sales up more than 100 per cent this year, and he said it “hopes to double that again next year”.

Market share
Across Asia Pacific in 2024, it expanded into a number of new markets, including securing deals with the largest mobile player in Bangladesh, Grameenphone. On the wireless side, it increased its RAN market share with the operator to 35 per cent from 20 per cent, and deployed its packet core as well as a managed service for the entire network.

It also supplies RAN gear to Veon’s unit in Kazakhstan, the number one mobile operator by mobile subscribers.

Markets where it is looking to gain RAN business is in the Philippines, where the two major players use other vendors, he said.

“ZTE is already working with most of the mainstream fixed-line operators in the Asia-Pacific region, with a number of breakthroughs with clients in the region,” Mei said.

It is now shipping 10GPON gear and Wi-Fi 7 routers to J-Com, the largest TV and a major fixed-line provider in Japan, and started to work with PLDT in the Philippines on both optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network terminal (ONT) parts. 

Looking at the core network, he said it picked up business from Telkomsel in Indonesia, and after the merger of True and dtac in Thailand, the operator deployed ZTE’s UDM (Unified Data Management) core network product.

In Malaysia, following Celcom and Digi uniting, ZTE took 100 per cent of the core network.

In the transport area, Telkom Indonesia and Telekom Malaysia both use its IP core product, which is also used by AIS in Thailand for enterprise services and True for its fixed-line network.

Data centre focus
ZTE also forecasts strong growth in its data centre and enterprise businesses, which the company refers to as second curve products, taking advantage of the rapid move to digital transformation across the region.

Mei said that shift means “everything is moving to the cloud”, driving demand for data centre space. “We have an end-to-end solution covering everything from design to final delivery. ZTE has the capability to provide uptime Tier IV, the highest level in the industry.”

Supporting its deployments across the region, it has local teams in all major countries. “We provide services, and not only sell the product. Our strong delivery capabilities include system integration work” enabling it to deliver a platform within a short timeframe, he said.

ZTE has built several large data centres in the Philippines, Bangladesh and Indonesia, where it delivered a 20MW facility to Digital Hyperspace Indonesia (DHI).

It is working with Converge, the second-largest fixed-line provider in the Philippines, which is entering the cloud business. The operator in June deployed ZTE’s Wi-Fi 7 ONU, the first to be released in Southeast Asia.

In Bangladesh, a national data centre for the government built by ZTE was the first uptime Tier IV facility in South Asia. 

ZTE has delivered more than 400 data centre projects worldwide, covering an area exceeding 2.5 million square metres.

Its enterprise market in the region is on track to grow 40 per cent this year, and it expects about the same level in 2025, with the increase driven by robust sales of servers and switches.

Mei cited data from Gartner forecasting shipments of servers in Asia Pacific to reach 2 million this year, with continued brisk growth expected in the future.

In China, over the past three years ZTE was ranked number one in the server market for telcos, with more than a 25 per cent share. With growth slowing in the traditional operator market, it has focused on internet companies, the banking industry and oil and gas sector, with steady gains forecast.

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Xu detailed four key types of connections that are reshaping industries: data links, connecting the world seamlessly; wisdom links, redefining computing power and intelligence; symbiotic links, building ecosystem collaboration, where technology and the environment evolve together; and civilisation links, connecting carbon-based life and silicon-based intelligence.

The CEO argued civilisation links open up endless possibilities for collaboration between humans and AI.

He delivered the opening keynote at the company’s two-day 5G Summit & User Congress 2024 organised under the theme Flourish Through Intelligent Innovation, attracting industry professionals from across the telecoms ecosystem.

ZTE’s in-house developed Nebula large-language model (LLM) has 70 billion parameters, with its telecoms model aiming to accelerate the move to autonomous network to allow operators to reduce the workload of manual maintenance by 80 per cent, he said.

“As we support digital transformation, green transition is a core principle guiding our commitment.” He noted each year ZTE reduces its carbon emissions by 10 per cent, with the target to become carbon neutral across Scope 1 and 2 (direct and indirect emissions) and by 2040 and reach net zero by 2050.

Xu highlighted these gains are driven by the company’s long-term R&D commitment, with 20 per cent of revenue invested to support innovation.

He closed his speech by saying the “flow of bits, like the ceaseless waters of the Bosphorus Strait, connects our physical and digital worlds,” with the evolution of connections driving the progress of civilisation.

“Together, let’s bridge the world through connectivity, create new opportunities with digital intelligence and usher in a new era of human civilisation.”

Driving innovation
GSMA Ltd CEO John Hoffman argued in his presentation 5G is a platform for success and will “breed innovation across the world”.

Looking at its impact on sustainability, he suggested 5G has the potential to make a huge difference beyond the telecoms sector, which as a whole only contributes about 1 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide. That figure has remained fairly flat despite an increase in mobile data traffic carried over networks.

He said 5G technology also can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of other sectors, referring to figures estimating technology can drive a 40 per cent reduction in industries that account for 80 per cent of global CO2 emissions.

Turkiye’s Deputy Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Omer Fatih Sayan highlighted 5G forms the infrastructure of tomorrow’s technologies thanks to its high bandwidth and low latency.

Sayan noted 5G is so important because it promises high-capacity and high-speed connectivity, transforming the global economy and radically changing industries by creating new business areas. He added “5G is one of the biggest turning points of the modern world “if we make the right use of the technology and we use this opportunity.”

Innovation refers not only to the production of new technologies but “how these technologies can revolutionise our lives and lead to radical changes across society,” he stated.

Preparing for 6G
Sergio Parolati, 3GPP RAN2 Session chair, outlined progress using AI-ML to enable energy saving in the RAN, with network energy consumption reduced by about 35 per cent in trials. He pointed out the gains are not simulation but based on field tests in China with 7,200 sites and driven by additional gains from smart AI enabled energy savings.

He noted one of the problems with the 5G architecture for AI is every node is isolated and has its own AI module. “They don’t talk to each other so you can’t exploit the full capabilities.”

Moving to 6G, he said the industry needs to move to a distributed AI approach with multiple modules and multiple nodes that can operate together. “We also need a more flexible efficient management of data collection.”

GSMA CTO Alex Sinclair highlighted three areas where 5G-Advanced will push tech boundaries: performance improvements of existing platforms, better management and efficiency, and support for specific use cases, such as edge computing and enhanced satellite connectivity.

Around 300 mobile operators globally have launched 5G services in more than 100 markets, Sinclair added. China accounts for nearly half of worldwide 5G subscribers, or almost 1 billion.

He noted 5G had the fastest rollout of any mobile generation, taking just six years to reach 1 billion users, compared with 12 years for 3G.

Product showcase
Aside from the conference programme, ZTE showed off its comprehensive line-up of wireless and wireline products and services, underscoring the transformative potential of intelligent innovation.

The exhibition featured its full range of general-purpose and intelligent computing servers and storage products. Among the many wireless products on display, the 5G-A zone demonstrated advanced business applications, include a maritime sensing demo as a prototype.

The expo showcased its AI OpsBot Core Network Intelligent Expert, which combines large and small AI models with multiple intelligent agents. The solution adopts natural language interaction to enhance O&M efficiency by 30 per cent compared with traditional manual operations.

The event also held demos of ZTE’s latest innovations of wireline product and network, featuring groundbreaking solutions like the terabit OTN, a cost-effective 800GE IP network and next-generation all-optical access infrastructure.

Recent milestones
ZTE deployed tri-mode 50G PON and FTTR-B with Turk Telecom to build an advanced campus network, eliminating bandwidth bottlenecks in high-concurrency scenarios.

The company is working with TIM in Brazil to deploy its five-band UBR, enabling the rapid and cost-effective 5G site deployment.

In Kazakhstan, ZTE collaborated with Veon to complete Giga City using the vendor’s FDD Massive MIMO, resulting in a significant increase in 4G network throughput and improved quality of service, enabling 5G-like capabilities.

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Net profit increased 2.9 per cent year-on-year to CNY5.7 billion ($797 million), supported by a CNY770 million extraordinary gain.

Total revenue rose 2.9 per cent to CNY62.5 billion, led by a 10.4 per cent increase in international sales to CNY19.4 billion, 31.1 per cent of total revenue.

In a statement, the vendor explained the domestic market was under pressure due to a weak overall investment environment, while internationally it “continued to achieve breakthroughs with major countries and large telecom operators, maintaining double-digit growth”.

Domestic revenue was stable at CNY43.1 million.

Government and enterprise sales grew 56 per cent to CNY9.2 billion and consumer business 14.7 per cent to CNY16 billion.

Operator network revenue declined 8.6 per cent to CNY37.3 billion.

R&D expenses were flat at CNY12.7 billion, 20.4 per cent of operating revenue.

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In a statement yesterday (14 August) the Chinese vendor explained the live trial was a frontrunner in Malaysia, delivering individual data rates of 8.5Gb/s. ZTE added the companies plan to use the next generation technology to broadcast the opening ceremony of the 2024 Sukma Games sports event in conjunction with RTM, scheduled for 17 August.

ZTE stated the broadcast “will consist of high-resolution streams”, sent “with minimal delay”. It added the event would be the first experience for broadcasters to “capture the best footage”, as part of a broader set-up “offering them more flexibility and ability to do real-time coverage”.

CelcomDigi CEO Datuk Idham Nawawi said the data rates achieved show “the importance of industry collaboration and partnerships” in terms of delivering on the potential of 5G and 5G-A.

The operator will fuel Malaysia’s transformation into a “digital society”, he added.

Wong Heang Tuck, CEO of U Mobile, said the trial showcased the potential of 5G-A for “enterprise solutions across various verticals” and ZTE Malaysia chief Steven Ge added the companies would “bring more exciting use cases” as it tailors its products to meet the unique demands of the nation.

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Rosenworcel stated in a letter to Senator Maria Cantwell, who heads the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, that nearly 40 per cent of participants in the rip and replace programme reported they cannot complete the gear swap out without additional government funding.

Congress passed a law in 2019 requiring operators serving less than 10 million customers that had received government subsidies to remove network equipment deemed to pose a national security risk.

It allocated $1.9 billion for the FCC Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Programme, but the agency has repeatedly stated the estimated cost to replace the equipment is around $4.98 billion.

The law requires the FCC to first allocate funds to operators that have two million or less customers. Rosenworcel explained in her letter those applicants will receive prorated support of “only 39.5 per cent of reasonable costs”.

The letter stated, “in many rural and remote areas of the country where they may be the only mobile broadband service provider, a shutdown of all or part of their networks could eliminate the only provider in some regions”.

In addition, the inability for service providers “to fully remove, replace, and dispose of its covered equipment and services would raise national security concerns by leaving insecure equipment and services in our networks,” according to the letter.

The administration of President Joe Biden sought $3.1 billion in additional funding in October 2023, but Congress hasn’t approved it.

Competitive Carriers Association President and CEO Tim Donovan urged Congress to act upon the funding request for the programme.

“The urgency of the Chairwoman’s letter highlights the dire necessity to secure our nation’s communications infrastructure and prevent network failures and service reductions impacting tens of millions of consumers,” he stated.

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The Chinese vendor submitted its proposal to SBTi in September 2023. Its goals include: cutting direct and indirect carbon emissions (Scope 1 and 2) relative to a 2021 baseline by 52 per cent by 2030 and 90 per cent by 2040; and lowering third-party emissions (Scope 3) per unit of product performance by 52 per cent.

ZTE decreased overall carbon emissions by 9.7 per cent year-on-year in 2023, with operation Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions declining 3 per cent, and Scope 3 emissions in the upstream and downstream falling 9.8 per cent. 

Its photovoltaic power generation capacity increased 700 per cent over the last two years.

ZTE claimed its network equipment enabled global operators to reduce energy consumption by 10 billion kWh annually by using intelligent photovoltaic power generation, hydrogen fuel cells, liquid cooling, AI energy conservation and other advanced technologies.

The company joined SBTi in May 2023.

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