 | Issue: | Latin America I 1999 |
| Article no.: | 3 | |
| Topic: | Linking People with The Future | |
| Author: | Huawei Technologies | |
| Title: | Not available | |
| Organisation: | China | |
| PDF size: | 68KB |
About author
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Article abstract
Huawei is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research, development, manufacturing, marketing and services of telecommunications equipment. Based in Shenzhen, it was founded in 1988 and is the biggest telecommunications company in China based on turnover. In February, Huawei do Brazil Communicacoes was born to cater to not only the Brazilian domestic market, but also to the rest of Latin America. It aims to compete with world-famous companies on its advantages in technologies, quality, pricing and services.
Full Article
People’s endless aspirations for information and the amazing development in electronics and computer technologies have made Information Technology (IT) one of the most vigorous businesses since the 1980’s. In this era of information, great opportunities and challenges pervade the world, leaving vibrating impacts on every participant in the line. While the competition is getting more and more severe, new players are emerging to join the game. An Eastern Star With its large telecommunications market and large-scale network, China has the second biggest telephone network in the world, providing a total capacity of 135 million lines. Its mobile telecommunications network, which ranks the third in the world, serves about 12 million new subscribers each year. Enormous market potentials have cultivated massive productions. In fierce competitions with the world-class companies, Huawei has presented to the market its advanced technologies and powerful competitive capacity. Owing to its self-reliant R&D force and arduous efforts, Huawei arises in the East as a new star, full of hope and vitality. Though still a young company especially when compared with the giants in its field, Huawei has conquered 20% to 30% of the market in mainstream products such as switching, optical fibre access network and wireless local loop (WLL). Huawei is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research, development, manufacturing, marketing and services of telecommunications equipment. It was founded in 1988 with the headquarters located in Shenzhen, a neighboring city to Hong Kong. It has a total staff of 8000. The annual turnover of Huawei in 1998 was US$1.072 billion, ranking the first among China’s telecommunications industries. Its switching products have gained a market share of 30% with 15 million lines installed in China and its optical fibre access network equipment, 60%. Huawei-made C&C08 switch has now topped the list of China’s switching equipment manufacturers and is widely used in the high-level local networks. Huawei’s other products, including data communications and communications power supply systems also command quite large market shares. In 1999, Huawei targets a sales volume of US$2.02 billion. In recent years Huawei’s products have entered into international telecommunications networks, and they have established representative offices or subsidiaries in more than 10 countries, including the US, Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Egypt, Brazil, Ukraine, India, Pakistan and Algeria. Unlike many other companies in China, Huawei is an organisation wholly owned by its professional staff. Based on this unique mechanism, Huawei’s professionals are devoted and committed to the company’s core values and objectives, and that is, to realise the dreams of the customers in the electronic information field and to strive for a world-class enterprise through bit-by-bit, indefatigable and zealous effort. Growing up Competing with International Giants China has the world’s second largest telecommunications network and one of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment markets. Investment in telecommunications network construction come to US$22.5 billion per year. Taking switching for instance, more than 20 million lines of SPC switching are installed in China every year. The country started its scaled telecommunications construction very late in the 1980’s. Before then the network was extremely small and undeveloped. This, however, was a good situation for network planners, who could enjoy the freedom of using the world’s cutting edge technologies and state of the art equipment in the construction and development of thetelephone network. By 1998, the digital rate of switching and transmission equipment in China has respectively achieved 99.7% and 99%. The tremendous market capacity has made China’s telecommunications equipment market one of the world’s hottest markets. All of the international giants and many medium and small size companies, have joined in this fierce competition since the 1980’s. Before the domestic companies had become suitably developed in 1990’s, these giants had each respectively set up subsidiaries and joint ventures in China to strengthen their position and competitiveness. Their equipment has been widely used on the high-level network and throughout almost all domestic areas. In order to compete with these world-famous companies, Huawei depends mainly on its advantages in technologies, quality, pricing and services. At present the equipment is in good operations in many large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing. Thanks to these tough rivals in the China market, Huawei has accumulated enormous experiences and strength to extend to the international market. By 1998, its products had been distributed in 11 countries, including Russia, South Korea, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria and South Africa. A Total Solution The products developed by Huawei cover most telecommunications fields and are classified into 4 major categories: wired communication, wireless communication, data communication and power supply products. These products range from SPC exchange, Optical Fibre Access Network, SDH transmission systems, WLL, cellular communication systems (GSM), Intelligent Network, Support Network (including STP, BITS & TMN products), data communication (ATM switches, Internet Access servers and Routers), Power Supply system, terminal products, Micro-electronics and ASICs. C&C08 switch is an open and expandable platform, which adopts a complete distributed structure. The maximum capacity is 400,000 lines. Its multi-level modular design mode enables a perfect networking ability and till now it can offer more than 200 types of services to meet the fast-growing demands from the customers. Many latest technologies are used, such as the STM-l SDH optical trunk interface board and Internet Access Module, which have been proved by the operators to be very successfully designed. Huawei has constructed its 4~2.5G WDM backbone transmission ring network in China. Its STM-I, STM-4, STM-16 DXC system, as well as the flexible PCM and D/I systems have been widely used in China, Russia and South Korea. In 1998, with most mature technologies, Huawei developed a highly integrated compact STM-l system. The SBS155H system, only a little bigger than a laptop computer, is able to provide as many as 6 STM-l interfaces. Now every day more than 30 systems of this type are installed. In the WLL field; Huawei has developed 3 systems for different situations. ETS450 is a very economical solution for the communications of large coverage and low-user density applications such as rural areas. ETS1900C and ETS1900D respectively adopt CDMA and DECT technologies and can be used in both cities and small towns. Huawei provides a total solution of the intelligent network (SSP, SCP, SMS, SCE, IP and SMP) and is now one of the largest IN suppliers in China’s market. Power Supply systems, though not very complicated in structure, play a very important role in telecommunications. Huawei has a complete product series of power supply systems and some latest technology. Just among the 48V series, the rectifier modular type varies from 10A until 200A, and the system capacity varies from 50A to 2400A. All these systems feature a very high efficiency and complete protection mechanism. Through one centralised monitoring and control system, different types of systems can be managed in a unified manner. The major ICs used in all the above-mentioned products are self-designed by Huawei. It has an ASIC designing centre, adopting 0.28-0.35μm technologies to produce chips. A Leading Provider in the ‘Last Mile’ Solution As the operators speed up the progress of developing their network, in many cases they are finding themselves reluctantly facing the problem of the ‘last mile’. Optical Fibre Access Network with V5 interface is a very satisfactory solution suggested by ITU-T. In 1997 China Telecom started the large-scale construction of AN with V5 interfaces. Up to now, the AN equipment contracts in China have reached about 5 million ports. In the fierce market competition, Huawei has commanded 60% of the total market. The HONET® system supplied by Huawei integrates the compact SDH system, power supply system, distribution frame, batteries, air conditioner as well as the monitoring system within one cabinet called ONU (Optical Network Unit). The OLT (Optical Line Terminal) is connected to the switching centre via the V5.2 interface. Abundant types of services, such as ISDN, BRI, PRI, 64Kb/s D/I function, sub-rate interface (less than 64Kbs), N~64Kb/s data interface, X.25 interface, CATV interface, 2/4 wire analog interface, environment monitoring and alarm interfaces could be provided through the ONU; which can be put outdoors as near as possible to the end user. An advantage of the system is that wireless access and wired access could share the same platform. Powerful R&D Force Every year Huawei allocates more than 10% of its revenues to R&D investment. In 1998, the R&D fund totalled over US$100 million, and the figure is doubled in 1999. Now there are over 3300 professionals and engineers devoted to R&D in the headquarters R&D centre, the Research Institute in Beijing, the Research Institute in Shanghai and Ran Boss Technologies in the Silicon Valley, USA. Among them 70% are Master and Ph.D. degree holders and post-Ph.D. researchers. Huawei extensively exploits the latest research achievements in the electronic information field and never hesitates to learn from globally renowned enterprises. On the basis of self-reliance and taking all advantages of the opening policy and international cooperation, it has succeeded in developing a number of cutting-edge technologies. The New Partnership Model As the telecommunications industry features quick development, Huawei deeply understands that an in-time and effective customer service mechanism determines the existence of the company. To provide good services to customers, Huawei has set up 35 customer service centres, each with a team of highly qualified engineers. In this way, Huawei could guarantee very quick and effective responses to customers’ requirements. However, due to the more and more fierce competition in the telecommunications field, the traditional relationship between supplier and customer may not meet the requirements. In this case, a more stable partnership benefits both parties. Huawei has successful co-operative experiences with Hutchison Telecom of Hong Kong and many provincial operators in China. Canton Telecom, the largest provincial operator in China, makes a contribution that accounts for 20% of the revenue of China Telecom. Canton Telecom and Huawei have entered into a strategic partnership and have had many successful co-operations. A joint laboratory has been established and studies on Internet access equipment as well as other products have been carried out. After making a careful study of the requirements from end users, Huawei and Canton Telecom jointly worked out a new operation strategy and networking plan to attract more business users. This is the concept of ‘Business Network’. Business users, few as they are, account for the majority of the telephone consumption. However, at the same time, they have much higher requirements than common users. The key point is to provide better and more types of services. To upgrade or replace all the old equipment is definitely not economical and feasible. The solution is an ‘add-on network’ or ‘over-lapped network’. By adding new modules, a new and advanced network can be formed. This is called the ‘Business Network’. Multiple new services can be provided by this new network, such as Number Portability (NP), Centrix, ISDN, Cill, Video Phone, Call in, Call back, etc. After introducing the idea of the business network, there is a satisfactory increase in both the business customer number and the operation income, while the cost for construction and maintenance is lowered. As a result, more and more Chinese regional operators have adopted this idea and joined in the construction of businessഀ networks. And almost all of these business networks have used C&CO8 switches. Huawei do Brazil Huawei do Brazil Communicacoes, a subsidiary of Huawei, was founded in February 1999. It not only orients the Brazilian domestic market, but also serves as the base to extend businesses to the whole Latin America. With the privatisation of Telebras, the marketing environment of Brazil has been completely changed. This brings to telecommunications equipment suppliers both opportunities and challenges. With the end of the monopoly of Telebras, private operators are faced with severe competition. The equipment suppliers are expected to provide many new services for the operators to attract more customers and to reduce the cost to the maximum degree. Conclusion These are just the factors that have led Huawei to successes in both China and international markets. As a latecomer in the Brazilian market, Huawei do Brasil Comunicaçoes is fully aware of the intense competition it will face. It is Huawei’s deepest hope that it will be of some help in making a positive contribution toward the construction of Brazilian telecommunications network and that of the whole Latin America region.
