ZTE sets its sights on Europe

ZTE Corp plans to strengthen its position in the European market in the fields of telecom infrastructure, smartphones and government and enterprise solutions, according to company officials.

Since being established in China's southern coastal city-Shenzhen in 1985, ZTE has grown into a telecom-hardware giant - the fourth-largest mobile phone maker by shipments and fifth-largest telecom equipment maker by sales - competing with the likes of Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent.

Because of a global decline in telecom carrier spending on network construction, ZTE diversified its core businesses in recent years to explore new markets, such as mobile phones and enterprise IT solutions.