History
ZTE, initially founded as Zhongxing Semiconductor Co., Ltd in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in 1985, was incorporated by a group of investors associated with China's Ministry of Aerospace Industry.[15][16][17][18] In March 1993, Zhongxing Semiconductor changed its name to Zhongxing New Telecommunications Equipment Co., Ltd with capital of RMB 3 million, and created a new business model as a "state-owned and private-operating" economic entity. ZTE made an initial public offering (IPO) on the Shenzhen stock exchange in 1997 and another on the Hong Kong stock exchange in December 2004.[19]
While the company initially profited from domestic sales,[20] it vowed to use proceeds of its 2004 Hong Kong IPO to further expand R&D, overseas sales to developed nations, and overseas production.[21] Making headway in the international telecom market in 2006, it took 40% of new global orders for CDMA networks[22] topping the world CDMA equipment market by number of shipments.[23][24][25] That same year also saw ZTE find a customer in the Canadian Telus[26][27] and membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance.[28]
By 2009, the company had become the third-largest vendor of GSM telecom equipment worldwide, and about 20% of all GSM gear sold throughout the world that year was ZTE branded.[29] As of 2011, it holds around 7% of the LTE patents.[30]
In 2022, US court rules ZTE to end the five-year probation from a 2017 guilty plea.[31][32]
In 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s Annual PCT Review ranked ZTE's number of patent applications published under the PCT System as 11th in the world, with 1,738 patent applications being published during 2023.[33]
In April 2025, U Mobile announced collaboration with ZTE to deploy Malaysia's second 5G network, with ZTE responsible for the 5G network in East Malaysia.[34][35]
U.S. sanctions and import ban
In March 2017, ZTE pleaded guilty to illegally exporting U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea in violation of trade sanctions, and was fined a total of US$1.19 billion by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It was the largest-ever U.S. fine for export control violations.[36][37]
ZTE was allowed to continue working with U.S. companies, provided that it properly reprimand all employees involved in the violations. However, the Department of Commerce found that ZTE had violated these terms and made false statements regarding its compliance, having fired only 4 senior officials and still providing bonuses to 35 other employees involved in the violations. On 16 April 2018, the Department of Commerce banned U.S. companies from providing exports to ZTE for seven years.[38][39][40]
