Marking its entry into the Hungarian market, ZTE has announced a deal with the country's second largest fixed line operator Invitel Rt (previously Vivendi Telecom Hungary) for the supply of advanced DSL modems. Some 5,000 units have already been delivered to nine of Hungary's provinces, and ZTE says it is to become a long term supplier to Invitel.

Founded in 1994, Invitel provides telephony, Internet, and data services to residential and business customers in Hungary. The company is the incumbent operator in 9 out of 54 primary service areas where, according to its 2004 half-yearly results published 13 September 2004, it has a stable cash generative core telephony business. In the rest of Hungary, which the company says represents a significant growth opportunity following the liberalisation of the Hungarian telecommunications market, Invitel is an alternative telecom operator with a national backbone, metropolitan networks and point-to-multi-point access system. Invitel, which earlier in the year was reported to have signed Ericsson as an Ethernet DSL supplier, had increased its DSL contracts by 155% to 21,467 comparing 30 June 2004 to 30 June 2003.

Further bolstering its European broadband ambitions, ZTE has also announced an add-on to an existing DSL network operated by Greek incumbent OTE. This involves extension of systems, originally installed for the Olympic Games, to other locations in Athens. ZTE kicked off broadband access R&D in 1997. Since then, the company has deployed over 10mn ports of DSL products in over 10 countries, including China, Greece, India, Philippines, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Indonesia and Pakistan.
John Williamson