UTStarcom was a California company that made nearly all of its money in China. Its founders, Hong Lu and Ying Wu, set up shop in 1991 and aimed straight at China's phone network. They sold access equipment, wireless systems and handsets to the country's service providers. SoftBank, the Japanese investor, bought in early. When UTStarcom filed to go public at the end of 1999, the internet boom was near its peak.

Built for China First

The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1991 as Unitech Industries. It shipped its first network access products in 1993. In 1995 it bought StarCom Network Systems and took the name UTStarcom. Its wireless product, called PAS, gave city customers a low-cost phone they could carry around town. Nearly all of its revenue came from service providers in China. Its gear followed international telecom standards, so carriers could plug it into the networks they already ran.

SoftBank's Majority Stake

UTStarcom priced its IPO at $18 a share in March 2000 and listed on Nasdaq as UTSI. After the offering, SoftBank and its related companies owned 52.3 percent of the stock. The company grew fast in the early 2000s on PAS phones in China, then shrank as mobile carriers won those customers. It later moved its headquarters to Hangzhou, China. UTStarcom is still listed on Nasdaq, as a much smaller company.

Cover: China and Its People, John Thomson. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for portraits of China's people (phones for China).