Established in 2000, China Telecom Americas began in California as a representative office of China Telecommunications Corporation, the dominant telecom industry leader in China. The first U.S.-based Chinese telecom carrier, China Telecom Americas is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. We are the only authorized reseller today of domestic Chinese telecom products to North American companies seeking to do business in China.
Our company’s history:
1979 – The Chinese government initiates a series of market-oriented legislative and legal changes to open areas of the Chinese economy to foreign investment and competition.
2000 – China Telecommunications Corporation founded, with North American representative offices opened in California.
2001 – China joins the World Trade Organization, adding the nation’s 1.3 billion people to the modern global economy.
2002 – China Telecom Americas incorporated, receiving our 214 license from the Federal Communications Commission and making China Telecom the first Chinese telecommunications provider to enter the U.S. market. Telecom industry veteran Weihua Zhang, the architect of the 1994 “Shanghai Infoport Plan” (the first metropolitan information infrastructure blueprint in China) appointed company President.
Points of Presence (PoPs) established in New York and Washington, D.C. and new offices are opened in Palo Alto and Los Angeles, California. This officially establishes China Telecom Americas operating presence on both American coasts, and further work on individual PoPs and international cable landing stations enables CTA to pass customer telecom traffic within the U.S. By the end of 2002, our West Coast network was completed, and IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) ring was set up in Palo Alto, Washington, D.C, New York, and Los Angeles. Peering relationships established with U.S. and European carriers.
2003 – China Telecom Americas completes its voice platform, launching a wholesale business to buy and sell large-scale voice capacity from international carriers on a bilateral basis. AT&T is signed as a customer. By the end of CTA’s first year in the voice and data business, 20 multinational corporate customers have been signed for service.
Further, CTA officially becomes the only authorized U.S. reseller of China Domestic Services, a portfolio of data products previously available only for sale within China. This reseller arrangement creates a legal framework that makes it dramatically easier and safer for U.S. companies to engage with China for the purpose of buying and selling telecom products.
2004 – China Telecom Americas purchases network capacity to create dedicated routes necessary for enabling China-based companies to offer voice and data services abroad. CTA’s backbone connection between the U.S. and China is upgraded to 30 gigabit per second capacity – making it one of the largest network backbone service providers connecting the United States and China. CTA operations are extended into Canada, as China grows into Canada’s second largest trading partner.
China Telecom Corporation’s next generation Internet service, CN2, is made available on an international basis, and CTA begins offering CN2-based services. The original ChinaNet (CN), first created in the mid-1990’s, by now is the second largest IP network in the world. China Telecom Americas achieves a 99 percent installation rate for 2004, exceeding the industry average of 93 percent.
2005 – China Telecom Americas completes its nationwide telecom network in the United States. In the years since, CTA has realized a compounded annual revenue growth rate of 68%, and continues to extend its service area and depth to a wider reach of competitive marketplaces.
2006 to Date – China Telecom Global pursues an aggressive global expansion strategy by establishing offices in Europe, Central Asia, Middle East, Russia, Macao, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brazil, Australia, Venezuela, Malaysia, Korea, South Africa, Turkey and Kenya further cementing China Telecom’s position as a leader in global telecommunications services.
