Following the announcement made by India's DoT (Department of Telecom) on April 10 to prohibit Indian telecom operators from buying telecom equipment supplied by Chinese makers, India's state-owned telecom operator BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) recently banned Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei and ZTE from participating in the bidding process for its 5.5 million GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) lines, to be deployed in Northern and Eastern India, India's Economic Times reported on May 24. The value of BSNL's GSM line equipment orders is estimated at 20 billion Rupees (US$ 420.1 million; US$1 = 46.61 Rupees), according to the same source. Despite of several efforts made by these two leading Chinese telecom equipment suppliers to clear the security concerns of India's government, BSNL still stated that only Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel Lucent are eligible to take part in this bidding process.

 

According to India's Economic Times, India's Central Vigilance Commission under the Government of India has rejected 109 equipment contracts signed by Indian companies such as Uninor, Tata Communications, Airtel, Idea, Spice, Vodafone, and Aircel with Chinese telecom equipment suppliers since February 2010.