Indian telecom operators came out in open support of Chinese equipment makers, saying the government cannot deprive Indian consumers of the cutting-edge technology which these companies offer by denying security clearance to them.
The Rs 8,000-cr deal is expected to be finalised early next month.
Ordyn bagged the contract after qualifying in a competitive bidding process in which global giants such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE, HFCL, IComm and Arasor took part.
Leading Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corporation, have launched an aggressive 'Indianisation' drive. The two companies are replacing Chinese nationals with Indians on their board of directors. The move is seen as an attempt by the companies to change the public perception in India, where Chinese firms are often viewed with suspicion. This would also make it easy for the firms to do business in India.
Led by Huawei Technologies and ZTE, Chinese manufacturers are challenging the domination of European equipment-makers by grabbing contracts (some of which are in advanced stages of negotiations) worth over $2 billion in 2008 -- nearly one thirds of the Indian market of around $6 billion.
Australia is considering not sending any government officials to the Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing next year amid growing calls from lawmakers for an official diplomatic boycott, the Sydney Morning Herald said in a report on Thursday.
With 3G mobile services, which provide high-speed downloads of data, movies and videos, around six month away, mobile phone makers are getting ready to offer handsets for as little as Rs 3,500, against the currently available minimum price of over Rs 8,000.
Wen Jiabao will hold wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, apart from calling on President A P J Abdul Kalam and Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
The announcement quells fears among some telcos that Chinese players might be banned from participating in 5G trials and roll outs.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a heated exchange of words on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali on Wednesday, with the Chinese leader complaining about the media reporting about their communication, according to a video of the meeting posted by a Canada-based journalist.
The government believes firms which are subject to China's laws could be forced to hand over information to Beijing's security services.
'The jungles of Doda covers about 250 km.' 'Sleeper cells are providing active help to the terrorists.' 'The terrain and situation is such that it is not possible to keep track of every inch.'
"I do not think there is any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking at weeks, not months," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One, flying with President Donald Trump form Atlanta.
Chinese telecom gear giant Huawei Technologies has sought permission for access to the government's 'Trusted Telecom Portal' which went live on June 15 so that it can share details about the telecom products which telecom service providers have agreed to buy from it. The move is significant as sources close to the development say that, according to Chinese telecom companies' interpretation, the new National Security Directive on the telecom sector does not in any way prohibit them from participating in the process of selling telecom equipment of any kind to private telcos. The firm is waiting for a response from the government. It declined to comment.
The office will be headed by Twitter executive Peter Greenberger.
With Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE excluded from participating in the 5G roll out, their absence leaves a vacuum in the market which will have to be filled by three vendors: Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung.
Reliance Jio may not ask for a premium for its 5G services in the initial stages of the launch, according to sources in the company. The company will roll out 5G commercial services in four cities -Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata - around Diwali this month and slowly ramp up the processes for other cities, too. A senior executive, when asked whether Jio will charge higher tariffs for 5G against 4G, said: "In the initial stages, customers have to adopt 5G, then they will have to find value in the service, and then one can look at monetisation."
The world wants to halt climate change, but do it without affecting economic growth and consumption. This fundamental contradiction is the key theme at Davos 2020.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that US President Trump is frustrated with China.
Will open radio access network technology (O-RAN) disrupt the way 5G networks roll out in the country? After all, it promises to offer a substantially lower capital cost, enables the choice of an array of vendors, and provides more network flexibility - all very important for telcos who expect to invest over Rs 60,000 crore to roll out a pan-India 5G network and that's without spectrum costs. But more importantly, it counters the stranglehold of global telecom gear makers such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung over telcos to whom they sell propriety technology and bundled hardware and software.
Most Indian IT firms work as system integrators for Huawei and though the exposure is very less as of now, the potential is more due to 5G roll out. As pressure to keep the Chinese firm out of the 5G network grows, other global firms, including Japan's NEC, South Korea's Samsung, Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericssion are increasing their investments to grab more market share in the telecom sector.
Ravi Shankar Prasad in a review meeting of MTNL earlier this month had pulled up officials for poor network quality and slow pace of network roll-out.
The US on Friday issued orders to ban popular Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat from Sunday to safeguard national security, weeks after India banned them, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.
Overall, cumulative direct investment from China stood at just $2.05 billion till June 2018, according to consolidated DIPP figures
Apple has said the watch will launch in April
Australia will join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, as other allies weighed similar moves to protest China's human rights record.
Reliance Jio is close to finalising its contract with telecom gear maker Ericsson to roll out its 5G network in Mumbai and Maharashtra and Kolkata and West Bengal in the first phase of its launch in October. And it is going with Nokia for the lucrative Delhi circle, and Chennai, which includes Tamil Nadu, say sources aware of the development. This is the first time that Jio is opting for multiple vendors.
Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, in an internal letter on Wednesday, announced that the company has sold one million smartphones in the first 18 days of this month in India, state-run China Daily reported.
Given the security dilemma prevailing between India and China, India should curb the operation of Chinese telecom companies in India, asserts Dr Rup Narayan Das.
The Department of Telecom on Tuesday approved applications of telecom companies -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL -- for conducting 5G trials but none of them will be using technologies of Chinese entities. The list of telecom gear makers approved for trials include Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, C-DOT and Reliance Jio's indigenously developed technologies.
India was the second largest filer of international trademark applications among the BRICS nations in 2014.
Home minister heads several groups of ministers, including the one to decide the revival package for Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam. His ministry also takes decisive calls on national security in relation to telecom operations as well as equipment and technology used in the industry.
Internet-based systemic wisdom connects machines and people, and will drive next-gen enterprises, said Huawei's Yatish Nagavalli.
Reliance Industries Ltd, the country's largest company by revenues, profits and market value, has topped Indian corporate in the World's Best Employers rankings 2021 published by Forbes. Reliance was placed at 52 in the overall ranking of 750 global corporates likes Phillips, Sanofi, Pfizer and Intel. Other Indian names in the top 100 rankings were ICICI Bank at 65, HDFC Bank at 77 and HCL Technologies at 90, according to the Forbes ranking.
Around 83 per cent people in a survey in India shared that 5G is one of the factors they consider while buying a new phone and nearly three in every five existing premium smartphone users are looking to upgrade their device to the next generation technology, according to a report released by Cybermedia Research. According to the survey, 81 per cent respondents prefer Oppo for 5G smartphone and 79 per cent opted for Samsung. The global survey conducted in India, China and West Europe found that 5G users, where the service is available, have experienced better video calls, faster downloads and ability to stream ultra high definition videos and satisfaction level from 5G services is around 80 per cent.
'When an enemy country is looking for information to sabotage a system from a remote location, they can access your data, they can stop the functioning of our power plants, they can stop the functioning of critical systems in the network.' 'It is very important that we should have full control of everything in the network.' 'Most Indian companies buy from China only because of the kind of incentive they are getting.' 'By doing so, these Indian companies are exposing themselves to dangers in the coming years.'