NORTH American telecommunications equipment supplier Northern Telecom is to start building its data packet network switches in China later this year as part of expansion plans which will make the mainland its third largest global market within five years.
The company, which already builds private exchange equipment (PBX) in China under a joint venture company, also revealed plans to upgrade its China operation from a representative office to full-subsidiary status by the end of the year.
Northern Telecom Asia's Hongkong-based senior managing director, Mr Ming Li, said China was a primary corporate focus for the company.
Ultimately, the company wanted to compete in the mainland's enormous market for large-scale telephone branch exchange equipment, and was investing heavily in building its China-based infrastructure in the hope that Beijing authorises other foreign suppliers to enter the telephone switching market, Mr Li said.
Currently, just three foreign firms are permitted to build telephone exchange switching equipment under joint-venture - Alcatel of France, Germany's Siemens, and NEC of Japan. It is widely expected that the American telecommunications giant, AT&T, will be given market access soon, having signed a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding with China's State Planning Commission in late February.
Mr Li said NorTel formally applied to the Chinese Government earlier this year for the necessary licences to build large switch equipment in China.