India poised to block Chinese tech giant Huawei from its mobile carriers in June

Two of India’s three big telecoms carriers, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, currently use Huawei gear

A US campaign to curb Huawei has triggered bans or limits on the use of its equipment around the world

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Huawei equipment and network maintenance contracts are typically cheaper than European competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia. Photo: AP

Published: 2:30pm, 12 Mar 2021Updated: 2:46pm, 12 Mar 2021

India is likely to block its mobile carriers from using telecom equipment made by China’s Huawei, two government officials said, under procurement rules due to come into force in June.

New Delhi is wary about awarding new technology business to Chinese firms both because of security fears and a desire to get Indian manufacturers to produce more telecoms equipment.

A US campaign to curb Huawei has triggered bans or limits on the use of its equipment around the world but the situation in India has been amplified by strained relations between New Delhi and Beijing over their shared border.

India’s telecoms department on Wednesday said that after June 15 carriers can only buy certain types of equipment from government-approved “trusted sources” and said New Delhi could also create a “no procurement” blacklist. Huawei is likely to feature on this embargoed list, according to the two officials.

“We cannot prioritise economic gains if an investment poses national security risk,” one of the officials said.

The telecoms department, which did not comment on Thursday about Huawei, is yet to provide further details on the plans for trusted sources or a procurement blacklist.

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