ZTE gains another U.S. mobile contract

ZTE won a second minor CDMA infrastructure contract in the U.S., announcing today a deployment of its all-IP CDMA 2000 equipment for ClearTalk Wireless, a small carrier with networks in Idaho, Tennessee, Alabama, California and Arizona.

The ZTE deal isn’t the first instance in which ClearTalk has looked over the Pacific for infrastructure. When it launched its new networks in Arizona and California in 2004 it tapped ZTE’s Chinese rival Huawei for the equipment contract. Since then Huawei has managed to build on that U.S. foothold, announcing a CDMA 2000 deal with fast-growing regional carrier Leap and bidding for T-Mobile’s UMTS deployment, though it eventually lost out to Ericsson and Nokia.

ZTE has also been building up its U.S. wireless footprint gradually. It garnered its first North American mobile presence with a CPE deal with Telus for CDMA EV-DO data cards, and in September it announced a CDMA 1X infrastructure deal with rural carrier Copper Valley Wireless in Alaska. While ClearTalk is definitely a larger carrier than Copper Valley, the operator did not say how extensive ZTE’s footprint within its network would be or whether its infrastructure would be used to expand networks in its existing five-state territory or expand into other states in which it holds spectrum.

ClearTalk’s parent company NTCH owns spectrum and towers in Florida, Washington, Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Utah and Kentucky.