Huawei said that it has “been the largest contributor to LTE standards and patents in the industry since 2010.”

In a statement, the Chinese infrastructure giant said that according to recent data from standards group 3GPP, it has “contributed the most approved LTE Core Specification since 2010,” leading its nearest rival by more than 10 percent.  As of October 2011, it had submitted more than 7,900 LTE/EPC contributions to 3GPP, including more than 230 approved contributions of the LTE Core Specification.

Previous reports have indicated that Huawei does not have a particularly strong hand when it comes to essential LTE patents.

In September, Huawei’s Chinese counterpart ZTE claimed to be “one of the leading vendors in the world of essential patents for LTE standards, securing 235 of these patents.” Based on its analysis of the ETSI patents database, it noted that other leading owners of essential LTE patents included Qualcomm, InterDigital, Nokia and Samsung, all of which came ahead of Huawei.

According to a Forbes report from the same time, finance house Jeffries & Co had named LG Electronics as the leader in essential LTE patents, ahead of Qualcomm. Huawei did not feature prominently on this list.

Ying Weimin, president of GSM, UMTS and LTE Networks at Huawei, said: "We have established more than 20 joint innovation centres with global leading operators and now lead the strong development of the LTE industry by transforming advanced technologies into customers' competitiveness and success in business."