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India to audit all Chinese telecom gear
The Centre plans to do both an audit as well as security checks of all Chinese made telecoms gear installed on the existing networks of all service providers before allowing any fresh imports from that country, officials familiar with the development said. The move is to dispel concerns of the home ministry, which since 2005, has repeatedly warned that foreign telecom equipment vendors, especially Chinese, have the capability of installing spyware and malware that can monitor voice and data traffic and disable networks. All new mobile operators rolling out telecom networks have chosen to partner with Chinese companies. Besides, large parts of the both the GSM and CDMA networks of both Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communiations consist of Chinese-made telecoms equipment gear. Incumbents such as BSNL, MTNL, Idea amongst others also have installed Chinese made telecoms gear on their networks. ET has also learnt that in addition to Huawei and ZTE, the Indian government, since February has also not cleared imports from other Chinese equipment makers such as Mobi Antenna Technologies, Sunsea Telecommunication Co Ltd, Leoch Battery Co Ltd. Lenova and Tongyu (HK) Communication Equipment Co Ltd. The issue of security concerns over telecoms gear from Chinese makers has rocked India's mobile sector over the last two months. India has maintained there is no blanket ban on import of telecom equipment and networks from China, but vendors from that country such as Huawei and ZTE complain that the communications ministry has not approved any contracts that Indian operators have signed with them since February 18. Documents available with ET show that the Centre has rejected a total of 109 equipment contracts signed by local firms such as Uninor, Tata Communications, Airtel, Idea, Spice, Vodafone and Aircel with Chinese vendors since February. In a related development, the Chinese government on Monday urged India to remove restrictions on imports of its telecoms equipment. Beijing alos asked New Delhi to provide a "fair" business environment for Chinese firms. "We hope the policies (India) introduces will treat companies from all countries, including China, India and those in the West, equally," Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian told a press conference, an international news agency report. "They should not discriminate against Chinese companies. India should create a foreign investment policy environment that is open, fair and transparent," Mr Jian said as per reports by international wire agencies. Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-18 |
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