ZTE Corp Monday announced it won a contract reported to be worth more than 200 million euros (US$254 million) in Hungary, which includes building 4G telecommunications networks in the country.

China's biggest listed telecom equipment maker will help telecom operator Telenor to upgrade a national network in Hungary with a view to becoming the sole equipment maker of Telenor Hungary within five years.

Under the deal ZTE will provide equipment to build 6,000 base stations in Hungary, including 4G stations using the LTE (long term evolution) technology.

ZTE declined to reveal the deal's value but the Financial Times reported it at more than 200 million euros.

It was the latest telecom equipment order won by a rising number of Chinese equipment makers, including Huawei Technologies.

More significant is that the Chinese telecom equipment suppliers have entered the 4G era, which marks the future development of the global telecom industry, analysts said.

The LTE 4G technology provides users 20 to 50 times higher download speed through mobile phones.

At present, ZTE is constructing seven LTE networks and 50 trial networks in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and Middle East.

Shenzhen-based Huawei is also involved in building a trial LTE network in Shanghai for the World Expo 2010.

Last week, ZTE also announced that it would sell phones in the United States through Verizon Wireless, the first such cooperation with one of the top three US telcos.