LONDON-Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. stepped into the global supply-chain limelight, announcing it has signed an agreement with U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc to supply mobile network infrastructure equipment to many of Vodafone’s networks worldwide.
“Huawei has successfully fulfilled the selection criteria required by the Vodafone supplier qualification process to become an approved global supplier,” said Detlef Schultz, director of Global Supply Chain at Vodafone. “The global framework agreement recently signed with Vodafone gives Huawei the opportunity to develop its business opportunities within the Vodafone Group. Vodafone’s global approved suppliers are key enablers in the delivery of increased value to Vodafone’s customers and shareholders.”
“Vodafone is the world’s top-tier mobile operator, and Huawei is very pleased to have passed Vodafone’s accreditation, thus becoming one of Vodafone’s global approved suppliers,” said Zhengfei Ren, chief executive of Huawei. “Huawei is committed to providing Vodafone with innovative solutions to better support Vodafone’s global operations.”
In other Chinese vendor news, ZTE Corp. announced it has signed an agreement with Cisco Systems Inc. to jointly develop I.T. and communications technology solutions for the telecoms service provider market in China and Asia Pacific.
“Our two companies have very strong skills and complementary strengths that will provide excellent value to our customers in this region,” said Owen Chan, senior vice president of Asia-Pacific Operations at Cisco.
“ZTE’s strength in both fixed-line and wireless telecommunications combined with Cisco’s strength in routing and data communications offers customers a unique and compelling solution, especially if they are exploiting the efficiencies of IP-based communications in their networks,” said Zhong Hong, vice president and general manager of the Data Division at ZTE.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed and the companies said the agreement excludes deployments in Japan.
