Coronavirus Contamination Causes Concern for Indian Telcos Airtel and Vodafone Idea Over 4G Expansion

Coronavirus outbreak may likely affect Airtel, Vodafone Idea’s 4G expansion and rollout as Chinese vendors will be unable to supply network gear over the period of time. Reliance Jio Infocomm not likely to be impacted as it sources gear from South Korea’s Samsung, which we are already aware of. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are staring at costlier 4G expansion and rollout plans on account of coronavirus disruption in China as per Economic Times report. Indian telcos might be compelled to source their network equipment needs to non-Chinese vendors if China is unable to manage the epidemic crisis in the next few months.

• Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
• 
• 

Airtel and Vodafone Idea Will Have to Check for Non-Chinese Vendors

The telecom operators are keenly eyeing the developments of coronavirus outbreak in China since they have only a few months of network gear left, industry insiders told ET. The companies may now need to switch to European suppliers. Airtel and Vodafone Idea source their network equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE and such they are most likely to be affected by the coronavirus disruption. Reliance Jio Infocomm’s operations will remain unaffected as its sources its equipment from South Korean electronics major Samsung.

If the epidemic lingers beyond three months, it would “possibly increase their network gear procurement costs by around 10-15% for key items in selective circles such as 4G switches, radio equipment and massive MIMO systems,” according to Rajiv Sharma, research head at SBICap Securities.