Building Premium TD Network and Soft Power
——Fast network construction helps China Mobile take lead in domestic 3G market

China Mobile has the world's largest mobile network and base of subscribers. China Mobile was founded in April 20,  2000, with a capital of 51.8 billion RMB. As of September 30, 2008, it had over 800 billion RMB of assets and employed 158,400 people. As a partner of 2008 Beijing Olympics and Expo 2010 Shanghai, more and more people around the world start to know China Mobile.

Currently, China Mobile operates more than 400,000 GSM base stations and 87,000 TD base stations, and has over 527 million subscribers, increased by nearly 5 million every month. As the world's largest operator in terms of network scale and the number of users, China Mobile has secured its place in the Fortune 500 consecutively for 9 years and ranked  the 99th in 2009.

As the strongest operator in China, China Mobile has taken the responsibility of supporting TD-SCDMA, the 3G standard developed by China. China Mobile has given great importance and support to the development of the TD-SCDMA industrial chain, and has prepared a detailed and robust development plan. On April 1, 2008, ten cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen took the lead in starting the commercial use of TD-SCDMA. On January 7, 2009, China Mobile was granted the TD-SCDMA license, and launched its 3G brand "G3".

Strong sense of responsibility and elaborate network construction

China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network has been built in three phases. By now, the TD-SCDMA network has covered 238 cities in China.

The successful implementation of Phase 3 of China Mobile's TD network was attributable to the vigorous support of outstanding contractors. Phase 3 involving 200 cities commenced in August, 2009. ZTE won the contract of about 20,000 base stations, 　accounting for about 34% of the total share. As China Mobile required,  all its equipment providers must complete  Phase 3 of the TD network construction by December, 2009. One month after the kick-off, ZTE outperformed all the other contractors and successfully completed the construction of 40% of its assigned base stations.

The network tests carried out by the third party organizations for Phase 1 and 2 demonstrated that ZTE's assessment KPIs were remarkably better than those of other contractors. Based on the success in Phase 1 and 2, ZTE again won the first place in Phase 3's assessment. Benefited from the suppliers' effective implementation like ZTE, China Mobile's TD network construction has been progressed smoothly.

Success derives from overall capabilities

ZTE's outstanding performance in all the independent tests lies in reliable overall capabilities raked up from years of practices. There are four secrets for ZTE's success:

Good team organization: when approaching the contract delivery stage, ZTE set up a delivery team to coordinate planning and management of construction activities and facilitated the smooth delivery.

Effective management: during the delivery stage, a whole set of engineering management and appraisal indicators were developed to track and evaluate the engineering operation from 6 different aspects such as progress management indicators, quality management indicators and talent development.

The staff training: ZTE attached so much importance to its employees' skills and technical proficiency that a full-time training director was appointed to take charges of staff training. ZTE has developed a team of experts who are able to independently build, maintain and optimize TD-CDMA networks and contribute to TD-CDMA construction at different sites around the country.

The balance between quality and progress: ZTE applied effective management and control over engineering quality before, during and after the construction activities. While keeping good communication and understanding with China Mobile, ZTE always rapidly responded to all the arising problems  and was fully prepared for the post-construction assessment.

Excellent performance and extraordinary achievements

Whether China Mobile is able to take the lead in China's 3G market is determined by on-time delivery of equipment and fast progress of the overall TD construction. This means that the equipment suppliers should be capable of building large networks in an all-around way.

During Phase 2 of the TD-SCDMA project, 11 municipal subsidiaries of China Mobile were impressed by ZTE's good organization, effective management, high quality and close collaboration, which led them to continue the cooperation with ZTE in Phase 3 TD network construction.

To effectively examine the TD network performance in different places, China Mobile engaged third party organizations to assess network indicators achieved by the suppliers in May and July respectively.

According to the May's test results, among the 10 cities' networks tested in Phase 1, 4 of the top 5 were built by ZTE. Again, in Phase 2, ZTE accounted for 5.5 of the top 6 cities' networks among the 18 cities being tested.  ZTE's network coverage KPIs ranked the first in the overall evaluation.  ZTE was publically recognized as the top brand by the media. In July's tests, China Mobile organized the second round of third party testing. ZTE completed 8 out of the 12 cities which met the standards. It was another best result in the overall ranking.

In addition, ZTE is also confident in guaranteeing reliable communication services for big events. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics,  Yang Xiaofan, Vice President of China Mobile Beijing, spoke highly of ZTE's careful organization and sufficient human and resource supply.

Owing to ZTE's distinguish performance, China Mobile's 3G services were commercially launched on May 17, 2009. Currently, China Mobile continues to work with ZTE for further cooperation and construction of high quality TD networks.