Chinese telecom companies like Huawei and ZTE have been banned from taking part in India’s 5G trials and networks. This has been enforced by the Ministry of Communications, which said, in a government-issued notification, that it has banned service providers from those countries that India shares a border with from bidding. It has stated the reason for this prohibition to have been made on the “grounds of defence of India or matters directly or indirectly related including national security.”
The reinitiation of 5G trials in India has come in the wake of the relaxations of the lockdown that was put in place due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Major Indian Telecom giants like Airtel, Jio and Vodafone are set to participate in these trials.
Meanwhile, Jio is all set to roll out a 5G network that was completely made in India. This comes in the light of a recent announcement by Chinese companies that said that the costs for switching to 5G would be as much as 25% more than the current margin.
The Indian Government, that had earlier allowed Huawei to participate, has now withdrawn its permission. Experts view this as a result of the conflict that occurred in terms of the de-escalation talks that happened following the Galwan valley attacks, where several of the Indian soldiers were martyred. A bunch of measures were rolled out by the government to retaliate to the Chinese, including the banning of several Chinese apps.