ZTE Flips the RAN Script on Samsung in Q3, Says Dell’Oro

ZTE shrugged off its first-half struggles to regain the No. 4 position in global radio access network (RAN) revenues for the third quarter of the year, according to Dell’Oro Group’s latest findings. The surge propelled the Chinese vendor past rival Samsung and snugged it up against larger competitors Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia. The Dell’Oro report found that ZTE’s RAN business gained five points in market share in Q3, which allowed it to reverse the overall market share position it lost to Samsung in the second quarter. Stefan Pongratz, senior director at Delll’Oro, in an email said that ZTE’s shipment levels had returned to “pre-ban levels,” with a strong surge seen in its 4G LTE shipments during Q3. The Chinese vendor accounted for nearly 9 percent of the overall market during the latest quarter. ZTE early last year was slapped with $900 million in fines by the U.S. government after it was found to have sold equipment to Iran and North Korea that used components from U.S. companies in violation of a long-standing trade ban. That initial agreement also included a seven-year suspended denial of export privileges, which could be activated if any aspect of the agreement was not met.