5G in India and Anti-China Sentiments: Can Huawei, ZTE Ban Delay India’s 5G Trials?

“Getting 5G up and running (in India) will require an ecosystem of network equipment providers, as well as tech vendors providing the complete telecom software stack. Chinese manufacturers or not, given that we don’t have any major India-based network equipment providers, there will be others who India will need to rely on,” Batra says.

Jaideep Ghosh, chief operating officer at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, says that there are two ways to define the problems. The first, he says, is time. “Replacing mainstream telecom network equipment, and that too in a large scale, is an extensive, phase-wise effort and may take up to a few years. For example, recently the UK government has asked all telecom operators to remove existing Huawei equipment by 2027. Beyond equipment, many network OEMs have long-term services contracts built in, which also then needs to be reconsidered.”

The second factor, Ghosh affirms, is cost. So far, Ghosh says that Chinese players in the telecom infrastructure space have been the most cost effective among other Asian and European vendors that also provide equipment to Indian operators. IDC’s Batra, meanwhile, says that equipment made by Indian companies may be even more cost efficient. However, the key will be to see whether Indian operators manage to provide the full stack of hardware and software offerings to telcos necessary for enabling 5G services in India, which may be difficult since it takes years to build efficient network technologies.

Goldilocks moment for Indian companies?