India Likely To Amend Licence Norms To Bar Telecos From Procuring Critical Equipment From China

The Government is said to be looking at amending the licence norms to bar the Indian telecom players from sourcing "critical equipment" in their network infrastructures from Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, reports Economic Times.

The move, if implemented would mean that Huawei and ZTE will no longer be able to partake in the nation's 5G trials and deployments. Over the past few weeks, discussions on the same have been held among the officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), other relevant ministries and security agencies.

The Government is also considering the phasing out of the Chinese equipment over a span of the next few years given the cost implications for the carriers. While the telecom players state that at least two to three years would be needed to achieve the objective, it is expected that the final number of years for such a move will be decided by the Government in consultation with the players.

It is likely that the Government would not explicitly mention the barring of Chinese companies, and rather use a language similar to the Press Note 3 issued by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in April this year, which made mention of entities from any country which shared land border with India, or where the beneficial owner of investment in India was situated in or is a citizen of any such country.