Global Marine Systems and Huawei to establish Joint Venture Addressing Submarine Telecommunications Market

Global Marine Systems and Huawei to establish Joint Venture Addressing Submarine Telecommunications Market

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (”Huawei”), a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, and Global Marine Systems Limited (”Global Marine”), the independent market-leading subsea cable installation and maintenance company, today announced they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the intent to establish a joint venture (JV) to deliver end-to-end competitive submarine network solutions to reliably deliver highly advanced global communication capabilities. The JV commits itself to become the leader in providing submarine solution and services globally.

Industry analysts forecast a huge year in 2007 with at least 20 new supply contracts expected to be awarded totaling nearly 100,000 route-kilometers – largely driven by two transpacific cable projects and a number of medium-sized (2,000-10,000 kilometer) systems. These projections reflect a sustainable, stable growth market driven by the steady development of the Internet industry.

The JV combines Huawei’s advanced optical expertise and Global Marine’s market-leading submarine engineering capability. It will give submarine network developers and operators a strong end-to-end solutions alternative that encompasses world-class, field-proven terrestrial and subsea technologies.

“This strategic partnership leverages on our complementary strengths. Global Marine has over 150 years worth of experience in the installation and maintenance of subsea telecommunications systems, while last year Huawei was the fastest growing vendor in optical networks and is ranked No.2 with 11.3 percent global market share in 2006, according to Ovum-RHK.” said Mr. Yin Xuquan, Huawei’s president of Optical Networks.

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