In a new twist in the saga on whether Chinese companies Huawei Technologies and ZTE can supply telecommunications equipment, State Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Sanjay Dhotre said the government had no plans to exclude them from contracts. 5G network infrastructure.
Dhotre was giving a written response to inquiries from MPs in Parliament on Wednesday.
The announcement quells fears among some telcos that Chinese players may be banned from participating in 5G trials and deployments. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), while deposing with TI’s parliamentary committee, had said that the Interior Ministry would make a final decision on his fate. As a result, leading Indian telcos, following the lead of the DoT, installed additional applications for collaboration with OEMs in cities where they had already provided applications based on ties to Huawei or ZTE for 5G testing.
Telecommunications companies submitted additional requests in the context of a growing escalation in border tensions between India and China, accompanied by a strong move to ban Chinese products.
Even before the border skirmishes began, India had been under pressure from the United States, which is campaigning around the world to ban the use of Chinese 5G equipment on the grounds that they are allegedly used for spying. However, despite banning several popular Chinese apps, neither the Department of Transportation nor any other government department clarified their position on Chinese telecommunications equipment companies. The telcos say they had been willing to withdraw the requests they had made with the Chinese companies if the government had clearly communicated its intention to them, but without a clear signal, they decided to submit additional requests.
So for example, according to sources, Huawei had partnered with Airtel and Reliance Jio in Bengaluru and with Vodafone Idea in Delhi. ZTE had joined Airtel for Kolkata.
But in July, telecommunications companies felt compelled to offer new applications in most of these cities, this time with Nokia, Ericsson or Samsung. For example, Airtel filed an application with Ericsson in Bengaluru and with Nokia in Kolkata.
Reliance Jio, who had married Huawei in Bengaluru, gave an additional application that would do tests based on its own 5G technology, something it is already doing in Mumbai (where it also has an application with Samsung).
“Many of the telcos have submitted additional applications, but the original applications have not been withdrawn. So we are still hopeful that it is not the end, ”said the executive of a major Chinese gear manufacturer. Despite Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad vowing in June 2019 that the government will provide 5G spectrum for testing in 100 days, telcos say they are still waiting for the green signal.
That same month, Wireless Planning & Coordination Cell (WPC) published a memorandum defining the scope of 5G technology testing with the aim of regulating licenses. In accordance with this, the WPC was preparing to allocate spectrum to telcos that had made requests in the 850 MHz, 3500 MHz and 26 GHz bands for 5G testing.
However, the DoT raised concerns about the need to obtain security clearances before a telco could test 5G. Many telcos submitted requests for security clearance, but did not hear anything for a while.
In December, the DoT met with telecommunications companies and asked them to submit applications by January 15, 2020. Subsequently, telecommunications companies, along with their OEM partners, were called in for a presentation at the DoT on January 20.
Meanwhile, in addition to additional new applications, Reliance Jio announced that it had developed its own 5G technology in July. Two days after the announcement, it requested a test spectrum from the DoT to test its technology in the 3500 MHz and millimeter band for two years in Delhi and Mumbai. In your earlier application, you requested to test your own technology only in Mumbai.
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