Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is seeking to move into the North American market through alliances with North American vendors, possibly including Lucent and Nortel, according to a report in the China Daily.

The newspaper quoted Huawei executive vice president Zheng Baoyong as saying that the company was more inclined to strengthen its position in North America through strategic partnerships than “fighting it out on our own.”

Moreover, Zheng identified who those partners might be: “We are talking with telecom equipment makers such as Lucent and Nortel Networks this year to further our partnerships so as to better position ourselves,” he told the China Daily.

Neither Lucent nor Nortel were prepared to confirm Zheng’s statements.

Huawei already has a significant presence in North America, operating its Futurewei subsidiary in Richardson Texas, with offices in Santa Clara and San Diego, and it seems likely to grow.

The company’s international sales have experienced impressive growth since 2001. In that year, overseas sales jumped 156 percent, and then levelled off to a still-substantial 68 percent in 2002 and 90 percent in 2003, before growing 117 percent last year. Overseas sales accounted for US$2.28 billion of Huawei’s US$5.56 billion total sales last year.

The company’s big push has been in third-generation (3G) wireless networking technology. Huawei won its first big North American contract last December when U.S. wireless service provider NTCH Inc. selected the company’s products for its CDMA (code division multiple access) 1X wireless network in California and Arizona.

(Shenzhen Daily March 28, 2005)