Huawei has just bagged a new contract from Bharti Airtel, and it comes as a respite for the Chinese gear maker, which doesn’t see a very bright future in the Indian telecom space. The company, along with other Chinese gear makers such as ZTE, have been ignored by the Indian telcos and the government to award new work contracts to European vendors. The government is wary about including Chinese companies in its projects for rolling out new networks because of cyber-security concerns. According to an ET Telecom report, Huawei has recently bagged a Rs 300 crore contract from Bharti Airtel.
Airtel Awards Rs 300 Crore Project to Huawei
A senior executive working for Huawei has confirmed that Airtel has already issued a procurement order (PO) to the company. He further said that the value of the deal in concern is a big part of Airtel’s complete capex budget when it comes to the non-radio network.
For the unaware, Huawei is running Airtel’s National Long Distance (NLD) network, and this deal is also a part of the same thing. NLD optical transport network is vital since it carries international traffic and inter-circle traffic and also contributes to managing network capacity.
This deal is a big respite for the Chinese gear maker since it has been losing out on contracts from Indian telcos for a considerable time now. Airtel, along with other Indian telcos, is focusing more on the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government or are opting for European vendors.
It is important to note that the Indian government is still in the process of making a list of all the trusted companies/vendors that can provide gear/equipment for a network’s core. Both the UK and the US have already taken steps to bar Chinese companies from becoming a part of their country’s core network infrastructure. India is expected to go along the same path, and the government might announce that very soon.
