By Paul Rasmussen
Operators demand guaranteed chipset supply from vendors
One of the first questions carriers are asking of potential handset suppliers is evidence that they have a guaranteed supply chain of critical chipsets, according to the product manager for TCL Communication, Patrick Power.
“We’ve been working hard in the background to ensure we can provide our mobile operator customers with handsets that have a cast-iron supply chain for chipsets. We’re contracted with MediaTek and Qualcomm for 4G and 5G chips so we can offer a guaranteed source across all of our products.”
The TCL manager highlighted this operator concern as the company announced its latest range of handsets, tablets and routers specifically for the European market.
The new TCL 30 Series smartphones: the TCL 30 5G, TCL 30+, TCL 30, TCL 30 SE and TCL 30 E, join the TCL 30 XE 5G and TCL 30 V 5G, which have been available in the US for some months.
“These new handsets are defined by having a great specification at a really great price,” said Power. “We’ve been talking to operators across Europe for the past six months to gauge their interest in these devices, which has been very positive. This effort to better understand operator requirements is another area we have spent considerable time building over the last 12 to 24 months. This is turning into a huge advantage for TCL, especially together with weekly contact with each operator customer to forecast handset demand over the next 6 to 12 weeks.”
This new push by TCL is part of the company’s strategy to increase its market share in the 20 European countries where it already has a presence.
