India said to dissuade telecoms network operators from buying Huawei, ZTE gear

Huawei is betting on customers for its 5G equipment in India, where it was allowed to take part in network trials
A deadly border clash between Indian and Chinese troops last month has renewed calls in the large South Asian economy to boycott Chinese tech

Huawei

Bloomberg

Published: 6:26pm, 1 Jul 2020

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India may advise local telecommunications network operators to shun equipment made by China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, people with knowledge of the matter said, as relations between Asia’s two biggest economies have deteriorated amid a border dispute.

New Delhi is also planning to review existing contracts of state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam with Chinese companies, the people said, who asked not to be identified as the matter is under discussion.

The country’s Ministry of Communications has approached private telecoms companies, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea, on their use of Chinese network equipment, they said. The ministry was not immediately available for a comment.

Telecoms equipment suppliers from China, including Huawei, have been eyeing a dominant role in securing contracts for 5G mobile network roll-out in India after they were allowed to participate in trials. India had so far resisted moves to join the call by the US and others for a ban on these companies from supplying equipment for superfast 5G networks, seen as essential to developing advances in factory automation, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence applications.

US telecoms regulator designates China’s Huawei, ZTE as national security threats

Huawei, which was recently designated by the US Federal Communications Commission as a national security threat and blocked from selling its equipment in the US and some other markets, is betting on customers for its 5G gear in India, the largest mobile phone market outside China.

The communications ministry met the mobile network operators recently and sought their views on the impact of banning Chinese equipment on costs for rolling out their proposed 5G infrastructure, the people said. It also wanted to figure out whether non-Chinese manufacturers were capable of fulfilling demand for such equipment.

As for the state-run players, they were directed to stick to Indian manufacturers for 4G services, provided their quality matched the globally accepted standard.

The move resonates with a nationalistic fervour that has been whipped up in India ever since border tensions with China erupted last month. That has led to calls for reducing dependence on Chinese products and denying their large companies from gaining a foothold in the country, which has the fastest growing telecoms market in the world.

03:08

India bans dozens of Chinese apps, including TikTok and WeChat, after deadly border clash

India on Monday banned ByteDance’s viral short video service TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps, citing threats to its sovereignty. The other banned apps included e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding’s UC Browser, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat and Baidu’s map and translation platforms.

That decision was made weeks after a bloody border stand-off that resulted in the death of 20 Indian troops and an unknown number of casualties on the Chinese side.

The potential ban comes at time when India is seeking to raise US$84 billion this year from a sale of airwaves – most of it for next-generation 5G mobile services tipped to revolutionise connectivity.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: India may take hard line on Chinese tech suppliers Amid border dispute

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