Huawei warns that India’s 5G rollout will be delayed by 2-3 years without their technology

Huawei has issued a statement that banning it from India’s 5G trials will delay the technology’s roll-out in the country. The statement comes at a time when India has been facing increasingly more pressure from US governments to exclude the Chinese telecom giant from the trials on the suspicion of it being used for espionage by its government.

“European operators have mentioned (in interviews to media) that without Huawei’s 5G technology, the 5G rollout will be postponed by two-three years. We hold the same expectation for the India market as we will use our fast 5G technology to meet the needs of the Indian operators and consumers because now we shall focus on how we can use our best technology to serve their needs," said Ritchie Peng, Chief Marketing Officer, Wireless Network Product Line, Huawei, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

India meanwhile has not made any decision on including or not, Huawei in the country’s 5G trials. Attempts at persuading India to rule in favour of Huawei have been aplenty. In July, India’s ambassador to China, Vikram Misri, was called to its foreign ministry on July 10 to hear China’s concerns about the U.S. campaign to keep Huawei out of 5G mobile infrastructure worldwide.

More recently, there were reports that China had been threatening India with adverse consequences for Indian firms operating in China, should Huawei be banned.

So far, as intimated to the Indian Parliament, 6 proposals have been received from multiple companies for the trials (including Huawei). Unconfirmed reports say tech companies Sony Ericsson and Samsung are expected to participate in it.  

Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad has said that India’s decision on the matter will be firm and independent of other pressures.