India Considering Ban on Chinese Supplied Network Infrastructure

­The Indian government is proposing expanding a partial ban on Chinese supplied mobile phones to include all telecoms equipment from Chinese suppliers, including Huawei and ZTE. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed to impose the ban on Chinese vendors in 20 of the country's 22 circles, that it considers to be sensitive due to their proximity to with international borders, although this many be later reduced to 14 circles.

At meeting at the DoT last week, the network operators expressed a strong objection to the proposed ban - which is being introduced following fears that Chinese infrastructure could compromise national security. The operators concerns were primarily price based, as the ban would force them to use kit supplied by the likes of Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks - which tends to be more expensive.

The DoT is now consulting with the Ministry of Home Affairs before taking the next steps in imposing any restrictions.

An alternative proposal is that all network suppliers should submit to a security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs every two years. This would affect both Chinese and European/US suppliers. Other proposals such as permitting outsourced management of networks to last for a maximum of two years are understood to have been opposed by the operators.

Earlier this year, India's state-owned BSNL reportedly dropped China's Huawei from a short list of suppliers in the regions closest to Pakistan, possibly because intelligence officials were unhappy with the vendor's entry in the sensitive area. BSNL apparently dropped the Chinese vendor after the Intelligence Bureau wrote to it, saying Huawei cannot be entrusted with the telecom expansion on the sensitive western zone.

Although Huawei has repeatedly denied it, the company has often been subject to rumours about its alleged close links to the Chinese government and military.

Posted to the site on 6th September 2009