ZTE profits jump 32 percent

Times may be tough for most telecom infrastructure vendors but China's ZTE is announcing some strong 2008 numbers. The company said that its full year net profit jumped by 32.5 percent to $239 million and revenue rose 27.4 percent to $6.4 billion. In addition, the company says it has received a $15 billion credit line from the China Development Bank to fund ZTE's overseas projects and credit limits.

ZTE said that domestic operations grew last year by 18.9 percent to $2.5 billion and international operations grew 33.5 percent year-over-year to $3.9 billion. ZTE Chairman Hou Weigui said that the growth came from the company's GSM, W-CDMA, FTTX and optical transmission product lines. The company expects strong growth going forward, particularly from its 3G technology. ZTE received about 30 percent of the recent 3G bids from China's telecom operators.

The Chinese equipment vendor recently said that it is planning to make a major smartphone push in the U.S. market in 2009, including possibly partnering with Verizon Wireless on a dual-mode CDMA/LTE handset.

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