ZTE back to black for the first quarter

After reporting a loss for 2016, ZTE swung back to a 1.21 billion yuan ($175.6 million) profit for the first three months of 2017 – a year-on-year increase of 27.8%.

The vendor reported a 17.8% increase in revenue for the quarter to 25.75 billion, due to strong momentum across its networking and smartphone businesses.

ZTE announced that its Pre5G products have now been deployed in over 40 networks in 30 countries. The company is on track to begin 5G pre-commercial deployments in the third quarter of 2018, with full commercial deployment starting in 2019.

On the wireline front, ZTE said it is sustaining its momentum as one of the industry leaders in the PON segment.

The company meanwhile reported more than 25% growth in shipments of set-top-boxes within its Big Video business, and a 70% growth in shipments for its self-developed NB IoT chipsets.

ZTE swung to a 2.36 billion yuan ($34.3 million) net loss for 2016 as a result of its $829.3 million settlement deal with the US Department of Commerce over the company’s alleged sale of telecommunications equipment using US components to Iran, in violation of trade sanctions.

At the time, ZTE CEO Dr Zhao Xianming said the company “acknowledges the mistakes it made, takes responsibility for them, and remains committed to positive change in the company.”