China's 3G rollout has defied the global decline in mobile infrastructure spending, helping Huawei and ZTE gain larger shares of the global market, researchers Infonetics said.
Around 59,000 3G BTS were deployed in China in Q1, causing Huawei to grow to the size of Alcatel-Lucent in the segment, the researchers said.
ZTE has doubled its share of the radio access network (RAN) revenue over the last four quarters, taking a spot in the top five.
W-CDMA vendor revenue grew 8% quarter on quarter, and 61% year-on-year, thanks mainly to China's 3G rollouts, although data card-driven upgrades in North America and Europe also contributed.
Ericsson retained the top spot on the list of top RAN vendors over the quarter, and increased its overall mobile infrastructure market share.