Enice enters US market with radio frequency contract

Chinese telecommunications infrastructure provider Enice has announced entering the United States market via a three-year contract to supply radio frequency products to US telco solutions vendor PCTEL.

PCTEL provides data tools, engineering services, and radio frequency products to companies in the wireless sector, such as those in healthcare, public safety, education, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and fleet management. Its connected solutions portfolio sees it deliver antennas and site solutions for carriers, railroads, utility applications, oil and gas companies, and other vertical markets.

"This contract win is an inflexion point in our international growth strategy, which will accelerate the deployment of our products in the international marketplace," Enice CEO Wei Yu said in a statement on Friday morning.

"PCTEL is an exceptionally strong partner to be working with in the US, and we are excited about the opportunities that this contract will provide.

"While we continue to experience strong contract momentum and geographic growth in our core Chinese market, international expansion represents a major growth area for Enice."

Enice (Electronics Network Information of Century East), which is predicted to increase by AU$45.5 billion in value over the next four years, had placed itself in a trading halt on Wednesday pending the PCTEL announcement on Friday.

Enice, worth AU$8.5 billion as of 2015, debuted on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) last October after announcing its initial public offering (IPO) in August.

The supplier has been operating for 15 years in China, building and providing telcos with wireless technologies and supporting services, and claimed that it is in talks with Australian telcos to bring its services to the country.

It now has 440 staff members in its Najing, China, headquarters and throughout branches in Beijing, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Anhui. It is also focused on research and development in the sector, currently holding 32 invention patents, 16 utility model patents, nine software copyrights, and two design patents.

In January, Enice announced a AU$8.53 million contract to provide China Mobile with 3 million distributed antenna systems (DAS) antennas over 2016 and 2017.

In late December, Enice also secured six new contracts worth a combined AU$14.19 million [PDF] to build out telco infrastructure to the Hubei, Hebei, and Henan provinces.

The contracts involved a network engineering agreement with Zhejiang Mobile, worth AU$3.6 million over 2016 and 2017; a communication pipeline construction project for Henan Mobile, worth AU$2.35 million; DAS services renovation for Hubei Mobile in Q4 2015, worth AU$0.15 million; urban network construction for Jiangsu Mobile in a contract worth AU$3.55 million with Southern Communication; wireless and RF product provision to Hebei Mobile, forecast to generate revenue of AU$1.98 million over 2016 and 2017; and an advanced solutions contract with Nokia-owned Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, worth AU$2.56 million.

"We are delighted to see continued momentum in new contract wins for Enice, and are particularly pleased to be awarded contracts by several high-profile participants in China's telecommunications sector," Wei Yu said at the time.

"Importantly, these contract wins also broaden Enice's reach into new geographies which we have specifically targeted for future growth. In particular, our expansion into the strategically important Hubei and Henan provinces is an important beach-head for our growth."

This followed the company announcing its successful tender to supply network engineering services, wireless, and RF products to China Tower [PDF] -- a company owned jointly by China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom -- in mid-December. China Tower was established by the three primary Chinese telcos in 2014 to manage construction, operation, and maintenance of DAS systems, mobile towers, and base stations, holding $36 billion in network assets and planning to build 150,000 mobile towers to act as base stations.

This successful tender saw Enice sign up to supply DAS antennas in the Jiangsu, Henan, and Shandong provinces.

"The company's success in winning these tenders with China Tower Company demonstrate that Enice is delivering on the strategy that we set out when the company listed; an important part of which is to commercialise our relationship with this group and to expand into new provinces in China," Wei Yu said on December 14.

"It is encouraging to see that our DAS antennas are competitive and gaining traction in the market. The company will continue to invest in R&D to deliver high-performance antenna products."