Chinese telecom company Huawei may not find a place in ‘core’ elements of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio’s 5G networks as the Indian telecom industry tries to hedge any risks against any future ban on Chinese equipment manufacturers in India, if these new reports are to be believed.
The report comes from ET, which quoted at least two unidentified senior telecom executives as saying that the decision is meant to be a safeguard against a possible ban on Huawei equipment in the future. According to one of them: “Given how there are global security concerns regarding Huawei’s equipment, nobody wants to get caught in the crossfire. It’s better to be safe and deploy Huawei in the non-core part of the 5G network”.
Another senior executive at a second carrier also seemingly aired similar views, saying it would be too much of a risk to use Huawei equipment in ‘core’ sectors. “We don’t want to be caught in a situation where we have deployed Huawei and then a ban comes. It would be such a big gamble to do so and already, given the stress in the sector, looks like nobody is going to take that risk”, they said.
The executive added that eliminating Huawei and ZTE from a major part of the 5G contract by Airtel and Vodafone Idea could lead to the rise of the cost of deployment because their options would then be European vendors Nokia and Ericsson. “We are working with all our strategic network partners,” an Airtel spokesperson said in response to ET’s detailed queries. The telco didn’t elaborate on its 5G deployment plans.
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(Source)
