Huawei has been given the green light to help India, the world's second-largest internet market, build out its 5G network. This means that India hasn’t followed the stance of the U.S. and other western countries, which see Huawei as a security threat, and have banned the use of the Chinese tech giant’s products.
Trial to all the players
"We have taken a decision to give 5G [bandwidth] for trial to all the players," Ravi Shankar Prasad (pictured), the country's minister for technology and communications, said.
This means that Huawei will compete on an equal footing with other providers, and if it impresses, it could have a significant 5G footprint in India. This is certainly welcome news for the Chinese company, which had a turbulent 2019.
"We thank the Indian government for their continued faith in Huawei," the company's India CEO Jay Chen said in a statement. "We firmly believe that only technology innovations and high quality networks will be the key to rejuvenating the Indian telecom industry," he added.
A huge step for Huawei
India has more than 600 million internet users, many of which will want to make the upgrade to 5G. the Indian government had remained tight-lipped about its views on Huawei, whilst the Chinese company said it never faced any barriers, and even got an endorsement from one of the country's top telecom executives recently.
"With all my engagements with the Indian government, nobody has told me that you have a problem," Chen told reporters in February.
It appears that Huawei is expanding its global business despite US bans, with the company already signing over 50 global 5G contracts. And gaining approval for the involvement in India’s 2020 5G trials is a huge win for Huawei, and further demonstrates the company’s strong market position.
- Get the latest 5G stocks news today
- Discover the best 5G phones
- We reveal how 5G technology works
- Discover key dates with our 5G timeline
