China Telecom expands to Texas

China Telecom Americas (CTA) has opened an office in Dallas, Texas to handle the United States’ increasing presence of Chinese companies.

Zhao Hui, Vice President of China Telecom Americas, said that the company primarily focused on serving American companies when it first came to the U.S. in 2000. Beginning in 2013, CTA established up a team to concentrate on serving Chinese companies.

“In the past three years, our business has been growing at 60 percent a year,” said Zhao. “We provide comprehensive ICT services to some of the major Chinese companies in the U.S., including Bank of China and Fuyao Glass America, which produces a quarter of its auto glass in the U.S. In the past three years, our business has been growing at 60 percent a year.”

CTA’s CTExcel carrier service has signed up more than 50,000 customers in the U.S. in a little more than a year, said Zhao. Its service package offers dual sim cards with a U.S. number and a China number, plus free minutes between China and the U.S. The service has been very popular among Chinese students studying in the U.S. and business people who travel a lot between China and the States.

“Our numbers show that there are more than 300,000 Chinese university students and scholars in the U.S. If counting primary schools, the number is as high as 450,000. There are many opportunities,” said Sun Feng, CTA’s mobile business director. In Houston, there are five CTExcel retail stores, with more to come, he said.

CTA has provided service for many high-level visits to the U.S. by Chinese government officials, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 2015 state visit and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s recent visit to the United Nations.

The opening event was co-hosted by the Houston chapter of China General Chamber of Commerce U.S.A (CGCC), with scores of executives attending from Chinese companies, many of them CTA’s corporate customers.

Li Shaolin, president of the chamber’s Houston chapter, welcomed China Telecom Americas to Texas and as a new member to the local chapter.

“Our chapter has grown from 39 to 70 in a little over a year. Our goal is to increase it to 80 by August next year. We plan to add associate membership and admit U.S. companies to further benefit our member’s business collaboration,” he said.

Li Qiangmin, China’s consul general in Houston, said that competition in the U.S. telecom market is very fierce, but that CTA’s business strategy in the U.S. reflects its confidence in expanding its international business. With more Chinese and businesses coming to Texas, “CTA’s Texas office will surely bring new growth to the company,” he said.