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India is reportedly phasing out Huawei equipment from its networks

Chinese tech will be quietly removed from Indian networks as border tensions rise, a report says.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor
Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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  • I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Corinne Reichert
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Huawei will be quietly removed from Indian networks, a report says.

Angela Lang/CNET

India will reportedly remove Huawei equipment from its mobile networks as tensions grow between India and China over the disputed territory of the Himalayan Galwan Valley. The Indian government is concerned about Chinese investment in its networking infrastructure, the Financial Times reported Monday citing government officials and industry executives. 

Rather than outright banning Huawei, though, the government is more likely to quietly remove the equipment from the Chinese tech giant. 

"When it comes to big public contracts and critical infrastructure, we would prefer non-Chinese companies," a senior government official reportedly told the Financial Times. "That message has gotten through to Indian business."

Reliance Jio is developing its own 5G equipment, Bharti Airtel is working with Ericsson and the Financial Times says state-owned BSNL is shutting out Chinese vendors. Vodafone India worked with Huawei on 5G trials.

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The report comes a week after a report said Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE are expected to be locked out of India's 5G rollout plans.

Huawei, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone India and the Press Bureau of the Indian government didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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