Nokia, Ericsson, and Cisco are few of the top telecom gear manufacturers and equipment providers globally. Their presence in India is also quite solid now as the Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, have been barred from helping telecom operators with their equipment needs. The differences between India and China still exist, due to which the Government of India (GoI) has decided to continue not including Chinese companies in the telecom business in India.
Telecom Gear Providers Want Govt to Allow Sourcing Equipment, Component from China
According to a Financial Express report, Nokia, Ericsson, and Cisco have sought GoI’s help in allowing them to bring their equipment and component from China. It is worth noting that all of these companies have manufacturing bases in China along with Europe, India, and the US. Since the demand for telecom gear is increasing with the 5G rollout nearby, the network gear providers want the government’s help to bring their products from the Chinese land to India. Further, these companies have asked for a time frame of 6 to 9 months from the Indian government for relocating their base from China to India. India’s 5G rollout could be slowed down significantly if these vendors aren’t allowed to bring their equipment from China. Further, there is a new mandate going to come into effect from July 1, 2022, which will require the gear imported from outside to be first tested in select labs for their safety before being approved for use by telecom operators. This could also bring supply issues and slow down the rollout of 5G in India. The industry executives want the government to delay this decision to January 1, 2023, at least. This will give the concerned labs enough time to prepare themselves and fasten their learning curve to ensure that there are no huge delays in the testing of products. For the first time, these labs will have to check products in scale, including radios, routers, switches, and more.
