The Chinese telecom vendors have not had a good time in India in the last few years because of the tension between India and China. To keep its borders secure, India has decided not to include Chinese vendors in its trusted list of telecom gear vendors due to which, telcos can’t do business with Huawei and ZTE anymore.
Earlier, the telcos were not allowed to issue fresh orders to companies not included in the trusted list for connecting networks and were also asked to take permission from the National Cyber Security Coordinator to upgrade networks with the equipment of companies, not on the trusted list.
The department has amended the clause in the Unified License for the telcos which now says that the telcos also can’t expand the current networks using equipment from non-trusted companies.
This amendment is definitely to cover up the loophole present in the existing clause. The remaining things of the clause have remained the same. The word ‘expansion’ was only added and highlighted by the DoT. This development was first noted by ET Telecom.
Huawei and ZTE’s Future in India Looks Difficult
The Chinese firms including Huawei and ZTE have been in India for a very long-time and have worked with multiple telecom operators. These companies have a lot of experience and offered the Indian telcos good and economical deals because of the scale at which they work at. But now, these companies aren’t working with the telcos anymore for 5G as they are not on the trusted list.
The government hasn’t directly said that the telcos can’t work with Huawei and ZTE or said that either of these companies will never be included in the trusted list. To be frank, no one knows what the future holds. So, Huawei and ZTE will just hope that they can come to terms with the government and can work with the Indian telcos once again.
