India proposes restrictions to Chinese telecom import

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed Chinese telecom imports be restricted to only devices and accessories such as mobile phones and USB dongles, while leaving imports of strategic areas in telecom to "non-controversial countries".

According to an Indian Express report Tuesday, DoT's international cooperation strategy listed China at the lowest spot on a weighted assessment based on trade and strategic factors. The report was submitted to the telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Aug. 16, it added.

China received a low strategic value despite its high trade value, the report said. DoT recommended future deals with the country to be limited to telecom manufacturing such as mobile phones and computer hardware.

The report added key businesses areas such as infrastructure, broadband penetration, managing urbanization and resilient networks should be from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Sweden and Finland. Technology for satellite and emergency communications should be limited to the U.S., Russia, Japan and France.

The report recommended security, encryption and surveillance technologies be open to the U.S., Israel, Finland, Canada and Japan for strategic reasons. Mobile apps will be limited to the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Israel, while cloud computing should be restricted to the U.S. and Japan, it added.

This is not the first time Chinese vendors are sidelined in government projects. In Australia, Huawei was banned from tendering for the country's national broadband network (NBN).