UTStarcom Inc. has won a $28.7 million deal to provide China Netcom with IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) equipment in 28 county-level cities throughout the Henan Province. The province is the most populated province in China with more than 93 million people.
Introduced in China in 1998 as a supplement to fixed-line systems, UTStarcom's PAS technology gained more than 10 million Chinese customers as of April 2003 and commands more than 60 percent of the country's market share for the sector. Marketed as a low-cost investment option for wireless local telephone service, the PAS system supports advanced voice and data services and can be integrated with future 3G and broadband technologies.
UTStarcom had its U.S. coming out party earlier this month at SUPERCOMM, but the company has already seen a great deal of success overseas, claiming the No. 1 ranking in the worldwide softswitch and the personal wireless access markets and the No. 2 position in DSLAM sales. The company has had a dozen consecutive quarters of profitability, reported $981.8 million in net sales for 2002 and anticipates 2003 revenues of $1.32 billion. Its business in Asia has been the primary driver to date of the company’s good results.
UTStarcom sells optical transport, softswitch, DSLAM, wireless local loop and other wireless solutions.
