India blocks Chinese telecoms equipment makers

After informally asking Indian mobile operators for over four months not to import and install any telecom equipment manufactured by Chinese companies, the government today officially baned the import of such equipment from China.

The ban will affect Huawei Technologies, China's largest telecom networking gear manufacturer and the world's second-largest mobile equipment supplier behind Ericsson, and ZTE, China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker.

The Indian government took the decision after months of deliberations on the wider political fallout imposing the ban that it is likely to face with China.

In August 2009, stiff opposition from mobile operators on the ban from buying Chinese telecom equipment, the government scaled down its proposal and asked the country's top mobile operators to adopt a policy of self-regulation in sourcing telecom equipment (See: Government backtracks on banning Chinese telecom equipment)

India was forced to act after the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products told its government that the Indian government was hindering the supply of Chinese telecom gear to Indian mobile operators.

The Chinese government took up the issue with its counterpart in India, which ultimately forced the department of telecommunications (DoT) to completely ban imports of Chinese telecom equipment, which observers say is most likely based on the recommendations of the indian intelligence agencies.