Vodafone Idea orders telecom equipment from Chinese business ZTE for Rs 200 Cr: Report

It has not yet been announced by Vodafone Idea. According to the article, the NSCS received a challenge to the and is now looking into it.

In accordance with the reports, the Chinese business ZTE has received a network eqipment order from Vodafone Idea for approximately Rs 200 crore. Vodafone Idea has reportedly placed orders for broadband network equipment for telecom circles of Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

According to a story in PTI that cited sources, the issue has been brought to the attention of the National Security Council Secretariat, which oversees the Trusted Telecom Portal and grants clearance for legal telecom equipment. It has not yet been announced by Vodafone Idea. According to the article, the NSCS received a challenge to the and is now looking into it.

Importing telecom equipment from China has time and again been considered a big threat to the national security, and this comes amid a long-running standoff between two of the world's biggest economies.

The National Security Directive on the telecommunications industry, which requires service providers to buy equipment from reliable suppliers, was authorized by the cabinet committee on security. It lists a number of these goods and sources for installation. The trusted telecom site is used for any work related to the directive.

However, the regulation has no impact on annual maintenance agreements or upgrades made to equipment that was previously installed in the network prior to the directive's implementation. Following this directive, Chinese companies were unable to obtain orders for 5G telecom equipment.

In November 2022, US authorities had also banned the import or sale of communications equipment from China's ZTE and Huawei Technologies because according to the US authorities they posed "an unacceptable risk" to the country's national security. Both firms had also been on the roster of companies listed as a threat by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the renewed rules then bared future authorizations of their equipment.