Huawei Clarifies  Indian Government's Concern Regarding 5G Solutions

New Delhi: Expressing confidence that the company will be part of India’s 5G journey, Chinese telecom equipment major Huawei has said it has clarified on all concerns of the Indian government regarding 5G solutions and its engagement with the country’s Telecom Ministry has been very positive.

“Huawei has demonstrated 5G solutions for enterprise use cases. We are very confident that we will be part of India’s 5G journey. I have full confidence that we will be part of the 5G trials and we are ready for it. I never think we will be blocked for that. We have very close connections with Indian government, industry and our customers”, Huawei India CEO Jay Chen told IANS in an interview.

“We have already clarified all the concerns regarding 5G solutions and networks. Our engagements with the Indian government is very positive,” he said.

In June this year, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government had received six proposals for 5G trials, including those from China’s Huawei and ZTE, but that Chinese vendor participation would hinge on the recommendations of a panel looking into 5G security issues.

A committee headed by the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) has been recently constituted to give recommendations on security relating to 5G technology and trials in India.

India, which is the world’s second-biggest wireless market by users, is scheduled to hold a spectrum auction for 5G services before March and it has yet to begin 5G trials, which is a necessary field experiment for service providers and their telecom equipment partners for testing the airwaves synchronization.

The Indian government has not taken a decision on allowing or banning Huawei from the test runs amid US steps to keep the Chinese tech group out of their market on security concerns. In May, America blacklisted Huawei from both the US market and from buying crucial US components.

The company has dismissed the security concerns arising over its equipment.

Huawei which provides telecom equipment in the Indian market is yet to engage with Jio, India’s second-largest telecom operator with 340 million 4G subscribers and the only full-fledged 4G player in the Indian market.

The Mukesh Ambani-led Jio has, instead, chosen its South Korean rival - Samsung - as its network partner as well as for the 5G trials.

“Jio already has laid their mobile network and now they are focussed on the fixed broadband network. In all these Huawei has strong points. So we are keen to set up our partnership with Jio and waiting for our right opportunity”, Chen said.

“This year is a very struggling year, the whole telecom industry is struggling for financial challenges. We are the same. Our calendar is our financial year. By the end of this year, we can tell what’s Huawei India financial situation. But we evaluate the India market not only from the financial perspective, but we also have long term strategy for this market,” he added.

All of Huawei’s leading innovation solutions in the last 3 years were introduced first to India, Chen said.

“We have partnerships with Indian customers for more than 15 years. They know our unique value, we also try hard to contribute by giving leading innovation and best services to them. We very appreciate the confidence and trust shown by customers n industry,” he said.

Indian telecom firms Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have used Huawei, as well as its European rivals Nokia and Ericsson, to build their 2G, 3G, and 4G networks and they feel all three foreign players should operate in the country to ensure competition, price and service quality. (IANS)

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