ChinaToday
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2011
- Messages
- 4,557
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
As Indias telecoms industry moves toward more advanced technology (and it is moving forward, despite the many hiccups the government seems to put in its way), local companies are getting more and more help from China and elsewhere.
On Tuesday, Huawei became the second Chinese company to secure a contract to manage one of market leader Bharti Airtels 4G networks, this one in the southern state of Karnataka.
In March, Chinas ZTE was awarded the contract to manage Bhartis network surrounding the eastern city of Kolkata of Bhartis other two networks, Maharashtra is to be managed Nokia Siemens, and Punjab is rumoured to be managed by Ericsson, though no deal has been announced.
This illustrates the showdown between the Europeans, whose reputations have long preceded them, and the Chinese, who have in the past been held up by concerns related not only to quality, but Indias fear of spying by Beijing.
Just a few weeks ago, Huawei was forced to dismiss as baseless allegations by an Indian intelligence agency that it had links to the Peoples Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security.
Compared to some of the European vendors it is more cost efficient [to hire] the Chinese, said Prashant Singal, of Ernst & Young. There is a bit of a balancing act which has to be done between the quality and the pricing, but the Chinese equipment is fairly well-accepted and they are providing a high degree of competition to the existing vendors.
Huawei has been in India since 1999, has 6,000 employees, an R&D hub in Bangalore, and works with all of the top ten Indian telecoms operators, the company said. It garnered its first 2G network contract in 2003-04, but has really begun exerting more dominance on the managing services business for the past few years.
In 2010, the company garnered nearly 30 per cent of the contracts from those telecoms operators who were awarded 3G spectrum licenses.
[The Chinese companies] are more aggressive in the marketplace, said Singal. Its not that theyre new, but with some of the larger players theyve been able to strike up relationships [over] the last couple of years.
One of those relationships is alleged to have been struck with billionaire Anil Ambani. In January, the Research & Analysis Wing (Indias CIA) in a note leaked to The Hindu Business Line newspaper alleged that ZTE and Huawei helped to secure a $1.2bn loan from various Chinese banks.
Huawei, calling the accusations, untrue, baseless and malicious in intent, responded with a statement:
Despite such continuous and repeated disinformation campaign over the past 12 years of its presence in India, the company has been serving India customers and firmly committed to being Indias partner and contributor to the growth and development of the telecom/ICT Industry in India.
In order to combat such prejudices, both Chinese companies are beginning to hire more and more Indian staff, with ZTE recently bringing up its Indian workforce strength to 90 per cent of its 3,500 employees in the country. Huaweis, meanwhile, is 95 per cent.
India telecoms: China is here to help | beyondbrics | News and views on emerging markets from the Financial Times
On Tuesday, Huawei became the second Chinese company to secure a contract to manage one of market leader Bharti Airtels 4G networks, this one in the southern state of Karnataka.
In March, Chinas ZTE was awarded the contract to manage Bhartis network surrounding the eastern city of Kolkata of Bhartis other two networks, Maharashtra is to be managed Nokia Siemens, and Punjab is rumoured to be managed by Ericsson, though no deal has been announced.
This illustrates the showdown between the Europeans, whose reputations have long preceded them, and the Chinese, who have in the past been held up by concerns related not only to quality, but Indias fear of spying by Beijing.
Just a few weeks ago, Huawei was forced to dismiss as baseless allegations by an Indian intelligence agency that it had links to the Peoples Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security.
Compared to some of the European vendors it is more cost efficient [to hire] the Chinese, said Prashant Singal, of Ernst & Young. There is a bit of a balancing act which has to be done between the quality and the pricing, but the Chinese equipment is fairly well-accepted and they are providing a high degree of competition to the existing vendors.
Huawei has been in India since 1999, has 6,000 employees, an R&D hub in Bangalore, and works with all of the top ten Indian telecoms operators, the company said. It garnered its first 2G network contract in 2003-04, but has really begun exerting more dominance on the managing services business for the past few years.
In 2010, the company garnered nearly 30 per cent of the contracts from those telecoms operators who were awarded 3G spectrum licenses.
[The Chinese companies] are more aggressive in the marketplace, said Singal. Its not that theyre new, but with some of the larger players theyve been able to strike up relationships [over] the last couple of years.
One of those relationships is alleged to have been struck with billionaire Anil Ambani. In January, the Research & Analysis Wing (Indias CIA) in a note leaked to The Hindu Business Line newspaper alleged that ZTE and Huawei helped to secure a $1.2bn loan from various Chinese banks.
Huawei, calling the accusations, untrue, baseless and malicious in intent, responded with a statement:
Despite such continuous and repeated disinformation campaign over the past 12 years of its presence in India, the company has been serving India customers and firmly committed to being Indias partner and contributor to the growth and development of the telecom/ICT Industry in India.
In order to combat such prejudices, both Chinese companies are beginning to hire more and more Indian staff, with ZTE recently bringing up its Indian workforce strength to 90 per cent of its 3,500 employees in the country. Huaweis, meanwhile, is 95 per cent.
India telecoms: China is here to help | beyondbrics | News and views on emerging markets from the Financial Times
