While India’s telecom ministry has granted approval to a dozen companies, including Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and more for the six month long trial of 5G technology, Huawei and ZTE have been excluded from the list.
According to a BBC report, the two Chinese tech giant were not mentioned in the list of firms approved for 5G trials by the ministry, although, they were not banned from supplying 5G equipment to carriers. At the moment, India is the second largest smartphone market in the world, making it a key region for both the smartphone and mobile networking market. Other major carriers include, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, along with the State owned MTNL.
The Indian government’s Press Information Bureau stated that each company “will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G Technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas.” Furthermore, the government has yet to announce any official bans of the Chinese telecommunications based firms that already supply networking equipment to other carriers in the region.
However, the companies might face further scrutiny due to frictions between China and India. In other words, this could potentially mark India as the latest country that locks out both the firms. Previously, the local government had announced that it would make a “trusted” sources for telecom equipment as a part of its new security directive. So, there is still a chance of both firms being banned from the list of suppliers.
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