Bharti Airtel likely to replace Huawei with Swedish's Ericcson for 4G Network Expansion : Boycott Chinese
Bharti Airtel is likely to replace Huawei with Sweden’s Ericsson for 4G network expansion and modernisation in the Rest of Tamil Nadu (RoTN) circle, people familiar with the matter said, as the Sunil Mittal-led telco takes gradual steps towards reducing dependency on the Chinese telecom gear maker.
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel is likely to replace Huawei with Sweden’s Ericsson for 4G network expansion and modernisation in the Rest of Tamil Nadu (RoTN) circle, people familiar with the matter said, as the Sunil Mittal-led telco takes gradual steps towards reducing dependency on the Chinese telecom gear maker.
“Without Rest of Tamil Nadu, Huawei will just have two Airtel circles. Airtel has already stopped giving packet core orders to Huawei for any capacity expansion,” a person said on condition of anonymity. “All such orders have gone to Ericsson.”
Ericsson, which is the second-largest vendor for Airtel, declined to comment. Queries sent to Huawei remained unanswered.
"Airtel has strong relationships with several partners. These partners work across all our domains, radio, core and transport,” an Airtel spokesperson said in a statement to ET.
Huawei had increased its involvement with the Airtel network in 2017 when it got Rajasthan and UP (West) on top of Karnataka and Rest of Tamil Nadu.
But it is now likely to be back to two, with the telecom major, with over 284 million users, in late 2019 having swapped Huawei’s gear with Ericsson’s in the Rajasthan circle. That came at a time when the pressure on Huawei was increasing, mainly from the US, for its alleged proximity to the Chinese government, leading to concerns over possible snooping.
And now, India too has made its security concerns around Huawei clear, especially in the wake of the heightened border tensions with China. New Delhi has already barred state-run carriers from sourcing equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, and is believed to have informally nudged private telcos to replace Chinese equipment over time, without disrupting consumer services. Besides the US, even the UK recently banned the purchase of Huawei 5G equipment and said any such gear that’s installed needs to be removed by 2027.
Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer at Bharti Airtel, previously told ET that alternative suppliers were available if needed. “We will be fully compliant with government orders… To be fair, there are enough suppliers in the world and new suppliers are coming in. India should be fine with it.”
The comments had come soon after the US tightened restrictions on the Chinese vendor, which meant that Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract semiconductor maker, had to stop taking new orders from Huawei. This is expected to affect Huawei’s supplies globally, including to Indian vendors.
“Without Rest of Tamil Nadu, Huawei will just have two Airtel circles. Airtel has already stopped giving packet core orders to Huawei for any capacity expansion,” a person said on condition of anonymity. “All such orders have gone to Ericsson.”
Ericsson, which is the second-largest vendor for Airtel, declined to comment. Queries sent to Huawei remained unanswered.
"Airtel has strong relationships with several partners. These partners work across all our domains, radio, core and transport,” an Airtel spokesperson said in a statement to ET.
Huawei had increased its involvement with the Airtel network in 2017 when it got Rajasthan and UP (West) on top of Karnataka and Rest of Tamil Nadu.
But it is now likely to be back to two, with the telecom major, with over 284 million users, in late 2019 having swapped Huawei’s gear with Ericsson’s in the Rajasthan circle. That came at a time when the pressure on Huawei was increasing, mainly from the US, for its alleged proximity to the Chinese government, leading to concerns over possible snooping.
And now, India too has made its security concerns around Huawei clear, especially in the wake of the heightened border tensions with China. New Delhi has already barred state-run carriers from sourcing equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, and is believed to have informally nudged private telcos to replace Chinese equipment over time, without disrupting consumer services. Besides the US, even the UK recently banned the purchase of Huawei 5G equipment and said any such gear that’s installed needs to be removed by 2027.
Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer at Bharti Airtel, previously told ET that alternative suppliers were available if needed. “We will be fully compliant with government orders… To be fair, there are enough suppliers in the world and new suppliers are coming in. India should be fine with it.”
The comments had come soon after the US tightened restrictions on the Chinese vendor, which meant that Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract semiconductor maker, had to stop taking new orders from Huawei. This is expected to affect Huawei’s supplies globally, including to Indian vendors.
0 Response to "Bharti Airtel likely to replace Huawei with Swedish's Ericcson for 4G Network Expansion : Boycott Chinese"
Post a Comment