The Government of India has been very diplomatic in dealing with the Ban on Chinese Telecom Equipment being deployed in our networks. The Government first issued notifications that all Chinese Gears must be certified and approved by the DoT before being deployed in the network. When Telcos like Reliance Communication and Tata DoCoMo approached the DoT for certification, they are simply put on an indefinite hold, hinting them to look at other alternatives.
The most important piece of the story that is doing rounds in top Telecom circles is Government is likely to introduce a notification to phase out all Chinese Manufactured Equipment from Indian Telecom industry within the next 3 years. However, this will escalate the spat between the ever fighting Telcos again. Look at the uncertainty if the above notification is issued – Tata DoCoMo and RCom will have to immediately start spending on sourcing new equipment from Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks or Ericsson. Operators will face uncertainty in network capacity planning, and given the rapid growth of traffic seen in recent times, will need to decide quickly on vendor choice.
My sources tell me that Reliance Communications is already in talks with Alcatel Lucent. For a change Ambani is not thinking of getting the Chinese Equipment re-branded as some XYZ Brand from Europe and deploy them 🙂
I think this is good step by Ind Govt.
It may be true that the chinese equipement have malware and spyware that is threat to the security of Indian telecom network. The operators must not allow to play with the security of the country just sake of saving some money on equipment.
The equipment may come at lower prise but with lot of troubles.
Good initiative.