As one of the first Chinese telecoms equipment provider to pursue business in overseas markets, ZTE now has about 62,000 employees and 10,000 of them are working in about 107 representative offices around the world.

Since 1996, the company has provided products and services to 140 countries and regions, serving major telecoms operators in Asia Pacific, South Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Through a combination of strategic marketing, product differentiation, cost advantage improvement, human resources optimization and intellectual property management, ZTE has established firm commercial partnerships with over 500 operators around the world.

By the end of 2009 H1, ZTE had applied for around 20,000 national or international patents, 90% out of which were innovation patents with associated intellectual property rights.  In 2000, ZTE launched the world’s first CDMA mobile phone with detachable SIM card. In 2004, the company launched the world’s first CDMA-based digital trunking technology – GoTa (Global open Trunking architecture system) which included many technologies based on ZTE-owned intellectual property.

As a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, ZTE plays an important role in the international telecoms community. The company is an active member of more than 70 international standardization organizations and forums.

ZTE holds the position of Co-chairman in two ITU-T working groups and Editor of ITU-T standards including NGN, optical transmission and network security. As a member of 3GPP, ZTE has edited three standards involving 3G radio access networks and terminal systems. The company is also a board member of the WiMAX Forum.

ZTE has established strategic cooperation agreements with leading telecoms giants such as Portugal Telecom, France Telecom, Alcatel, Ericsson and Nortel in NGN and mobile systems, with Hutchison in 3G, and with Marconi in optical transmission systems.

The company has also established joint laboratory partnerships with Texas Instruments, Intel, Agere Systems, HHNEC, IBM, Microsoft (China), Qualcomm, Huahong NEC and Tsinghua University. The company has undertaken technological research alliance projects with 50 academic institutions throughout China, where ZTE is also a fully fledged member of the China Communications Standardization Association (CCSA).