China-based vendor ZTE announced its Italian business is one of the first to be back at full strength following the repeal of a US trade ban which brought the company’s operation to its knees.

In a statement, the vendor said it was ready to fight back in Italy after the ban on US component shipments was lifted earlier this week. In particular the company is targeting the resumption of business with Wind Tre on 5G projects after losing a €600 million contract from the Italian operator to rival Ericsson.

Keith Dyer, editor of The Mobile Network, said the Chinese vendor was halfway through the Wind Tre deployment when the suspension took effect and now expects to regain some of the contract.


CEO Hu Kun said ZTE is “even more committed to the investments and business plan in the Italian market.” While acknowledging the company must undertake a “huge amount of work” to regain lost ground in the country, he said it was determined to “demonstrate, once again, that we are capable of innovating in Italy with cutting-edge technological solutions and presenting new solutions and products that boost the economy.”

The company also aims to resume modernisation and consolidation contracts in Italy, stating it will accelerate its work on these projects to make up time lost during the US ban.

ZTE is expected to take time to fully recover from the US action, which it estimates could have resulted in it slipping to a net loss of between CNY7 billion ($1 billion) and CNY9 billion in the first half of 2018 compared with a CNY2.3 billion profit in the comparable period of 2017.