Huawei threatens to pause investment in India if it's out of 5G race

Amidst reports of Indian Telecos testing their 5G equipment, communication hardware manufacturer Huawei seems to be running out of patience with regulatory bodies in India. The company has clearly stated that it won't be investing more capital in its Indian operations if denied approval for their 5G equipment in India. 

The Chinese company’s CEO in India, Jay Chen has stated that the company has made several attempts to get a clearance on rolling out 5G infrastructure with government bodies but have not any official response. 

“You cannot always think, think and think, but make no decision”, said TOI report quoting Chen. Chinese government officials had previously warned about ‘reverse sanctions’ on Indian companies doing business in China if the Indian government blocks Huawei’s 5G rollout in the country. 

Huawei has been facing several regulatory roadblocks related to issues relating of privacy, and data theft after reports of the company embedding snooping software in the source code of its servers were released. 

The steering committee overseeing 5G is looking into Chinese participation in the launch of 5G services in India. The committee had given the go-ahead to Indian telecom operators for their respective 5G trail with an exception for Chinese vendors. 

In a meeting held in June earlier this year committee head, K Vijay Raghavan said that the matter is under deliberation regarding “the pros and cons of working with Chinese vendors”.

Talking about further Chinese investments in India, Chen had previously stated that several potential Chinese investors are closely looking into the Huawei’s treatment by the Indian government before giving the go-ahead for Indian operations.  

Huawei itself has invested about $3.5 billion in India and operates a manufacturing unit in Chennai for production of 2G, 3G and 4G equipment. While the Chinese company has lauded the government for their recent corporate reforms, including a substantial cut in corporate taxes but is unsure about its expansion plans. 

The company has claimed that they’re open to expansion into 5G equipment production and export, but that depends if they’re allowed to participate in the domestic operations of 5G network as well.