ZTE eyes IPTV market

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

ZTE began its India operations in 2001 as a telecommunication
equipment provider. The company, which provides products ranging from CDMA/GSM
handsets, data cards and value-added solutions in the Indian market claims a 100
percent average growth rate in India over the past six years. ZTE was a
participant in Convergence India 2007, during which time they realized the
budding prospects for IPTV at hand. "The market here is huge. We also got
to know that people here like music and entertainment is a big market, hence
there is much potential," claimed Yu Yi Fang, GM-Multimedia Products
Line, ZTE Corporation.

India calling

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

Strategy

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

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

Brand ZTE

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

Ruth Samson


ruths@cybermedia.co.in

(The author was hosted in Shanghai by ZTE)