Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies surpassed Ericsson Inc to become the world's biggest wireless communications base station vendor by the end of last year, representing global recognition for Chinese telecommunications, a United States-based research firm said yesterday.

Chinese OEMs (original equipment manufacturer), including Huawei, ZTE Corp, Datang Telecom and FiberHome Networks, now have 40 percent of the global BTS (base transceiver station) market, according to EJL Wireless Research.

A base transceiver station facilitates wireless communication between user equipment, such as mobile phones and computers, and a network. The network can be that of any of the wireless communication technologies such as GSM (global system of mobile communications), CDMA (code division multiple access) and Wi-Fi.

"Huawei was the No. 1 ranked OEM globally while Ericsson was the largest GSM supplier. Asia Pacific remains the driving force for global shipments as China, India and other southeast Asian countries continue to aggressively deploy 2G/3G networks," EJL's President Earl Lum said. Ericsson dropped to No. 2 BTS vendor last year, EJL said.

All major BTS equipment suppliers are covered in EJL's research, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Huawei, ZTE and Motorola.

Huawei, China's biggest private telecom equipment maker, said its net profit rose 20 percent to US$1.15 billion last year, up from US$956.9 million a year earlier. Its revenue jumped 43 percent from a year ago to US$18.33 billion last year.

(Shanghai Daily July 8, 2009)