ZTE wins Hutchison, VimpelCom Italian deal

CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd and VimpelCom Ltd selected Chinese supplier ZTE Corp to merge and manage their Italian mobile networks in a blow to Ericsson AB, which has business with both carriers.

"We want Italy to become ZTE's Europe hub," the company's head of Europe, Xiao Ming, said in an emailed statement. ZTE also plans to create "thousands of new jobs" in Italy, increasing the skills of its technicians and expanding the number of staff involved in related industries, Ming added.

The contract is valued at about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said last week. ZTE won the business in competition with Huawei Technologies Co, Ericsson and Nokia Oyj, they added. Ericsson currently manages Hutchison's network and part of VimpelCom's, according to one of the people.