Tag - Cha

A few years ago, communications equipment and wireless-broadband company UTStarcom, Inc. (Nasdaq:UTSI) was a rising star. Largely driven by its leading market share in China, where breakneck economic growth, soaring consumer demand and the Chinese government's commitment to speed up technology infrastructure helped the company annually double its sales and profits. But, alas, no more. A cycle of turmoil, including steady financial woes and management discord, dragged the company into the red in 2005 and it has stayed there until recently, with signs pointing to it bouncing back into the black.

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Alameda, Calif., UTStarcom provides communications equipment, networking solutions and international service and support to telecommunication service providers that operate wireless and wireline networks. With R&D operations in the United States, Canada, China, India and South Korea, the company sells its broadband, wireless and handset solutions to operators in both emerging and established telecommunications markets around the world. The company has had most of its successes in China and India, where it controls 65% and 80% of mobility markets, respectively.

Of the five company segments, which include broadband infrastructure, multimedia communications, handsets and services, UTStarcom's broadband business appears the most promising. IPTV, or Internet protocol TV, a technology that allows computer users to watch streaming TV channels over the Internet, is burgeoning in China, Japan and India, three key places where UTStarcom does business. The company, which dominates the small but fast-growing Chinese IPTV market with 90% market share, expects to have some 20 million paying IPTV subscribers by 2010. It helps that UTStarcom has solid relationships with domestic carriers and content providers such as Shanghai Media Group, the second-largest media group in China that also works closely with Intel Corporation (Nasdaq:INTC).

Last week, UTStarcom announced it will help set up an interactive advertising system in China for Guangxi Telecom Co., a firm owned by Beijing-based China Telecom Corp. (NYSE:CHA). While the company didn't release the terms of the deal, it did say Guangxi Telecom will use UTStarcom's IPTV equipment in the new advertising network, which will reach 14 Chinese cities through set-top boxes in office . . .

The information technology sector is coming of age in China, growing leaps and bounds as the nation's low costs and huge markets help make the Middle Kingdom an important hub for IT services.

One standout in the industry is AsiaInfo Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASIA), a top provider of telecommunications software solutions and IT security products and services in mainland China. AsiaInfo was founded in the United States in 1993, and moved most of its operations to China in 1995. The company operates in two divisions: AsiaInfo Technologies and Lenovo-AsiaInfo.

AsiaInfo Technologies provides software and IT solutions to all of China's national telecommunications carriers — including China Telecom Corporation Limited (NYSE:CHA), China Unicom Limited (NYSE:CHU), China Netcom Group Corp. (NYSE:CN) and China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE:CHL), the world's largest mobile operator. The company designs and provides infrastructure applications that enable telecom operators and service providers to offer services like mobile email, entertainment, and e-commerce technology and short message service. Lenovo-AsiaInfo focuses on providing information technology security products and services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses. The Lenovo segment's offerings focus mainly on firewall, remotely operated virtual private network technologies and denial of service protection.

In the last quarter of 2007, AsiaInfo inked several major agreements with China's telecom giants. The firm signed contracts to develop a customer relations management (CRM) system for Xinjiang Telecom, a provincial subsidiary of China Telecom; develop a mobile e-commerce platform for CMPak, a subsidiary of China Mobile in Pakistan; upgrade the business intelligence (BI) systems for China . . .