New Delhi, Aug 12 : Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio Infocomm, and Bharti Airtel may leave Huawei out of the ‘core elements’ of their 5G network, reports The Economic Times. The telecom companies are reluctant to tie-up with China’s Huawei in case the Indian government bans it in future.
“Given how there are global security concerns regarding Huawei’s equipment, nobody wants to get caught in the crossfire. It’s better to be safe and deploy Huawei in the non-core part of their 5G network,” the article quoted a source as saying.
The US has banned government contracts with Huawei over security concerns and is pushing for a global ban of the telecom company.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
“We don’t want to be caught in a situation where we have deployed Huawei and then a ban is imposed. It would be such a big gamble to take. Given the stress in the sector, looks like nobody is going to take that risk,” a source told the publication.
In the UK, Huawei is used only in the non-core part of the 5G network, which involves the radio system or hardware. This model of leaving Huawei out of the core areas of the 5G network might work for Indian companies, industry executives told the paper.
“UK has already followed this model. If other countries join in, then practically speaking, governments globally might be able to unite and cite this as a middle ground in this war between the US and China,” a source told the publication.
