Huawei soon to be No. 3 in 3G equipment making

TELECOM equipment maker Huawei, which grew rapidly last year, would shortly become the world¡¦s third largest vendor of 3G networks, research firm Dell¡¦Oro said in a statement.

¡§Huawei is set to surpass Alcatel-Lucent¡¦s WCDMA revenue in the near future,¡¨ Dell¡¦Oro analyst Scott Siegler said, adding Huawei¡¦s sales of 3G equipment, also know as WCDMA, more than doubled in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter.

That would leave it behind only the two largest players Ericsson and Nokia Siemens.

With Shenzhen firms Huawei and ZTE rushing into the market in the past few years, prices of network equipment have dropped, hitting results of the top three vendors.

Dell¡¦Oro said GSM technology still dominated the telecom network market and that it grew in the fourth quarter from the third. But the research firm said 3G was finally gaining traction and was poised to have a strong 2008.

¡§All signs point to a breakout year for the WCDMA market in 2008,¡¨ Siegler said, adding nearly 90 percent of all 3G networks have been upgraded to enable faster data download speeds.(SD-Agencies)