TD-Tech, a mainland joint venture established by Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies to develop 3G mobile technology, has appointed a Huawei executive as its head, signalling that the company will take a more active role in the nascent market.
The venture, 51 per cent owned by Nokia Siemens, yesterday named Hou Jinlong, a vice-president of Huawei Wireless Networks, as chief executive to replace Klaus Maler, who stepped down last month.
The announcement followed a joint shareholders' agreement signed in January that stated the joint venture's chairman would be Zhang Zhiqiang, the head of Nokia Siemens' operations in the Greater China region, while Mr Hou would be the chief executive.
The agreement was not previously disclosed to the public.
'The appointment of the new TD-Tech chief executive indicates that Huawei will be fully committed to TD-SCDMA technology,' said Credit Suisse analyst Wallace Cheung.
TD-Tech has been trailing rivals such as ZTE Corp and Datang Mobile in the development of the homegrown mobile technology.
ZTE has said it had taken 46 per cent of the contracts for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network tendered last year. TD-Tech received only a 13.8 per cent share, sources said.