Just like the U.S., India is also banning Chinese companies on all fronts. As of now, no less than 100 Chinese owned apps will be banned in India. In June, the Indian government prohibited the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment in its network. However, banning Huawei and ZTE comes with its own backlashes. This means that India has just Nokia and Ericsson as its viable options. Well, if Nokia makes good its threat, then it may be left with Ericsson.
According to recent reports, the Indian State Telecom Company (BSNL) owes Nokia arrears worth $121 million. Now, the Finnish telecom giant is threatening to withdraw from the network maintenance support for BSNL.
The Indian laws prohibit BSNL from using all Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment. With its current crises, it has just Ericsson to deal with if it is unable to settle Nokia. That’s not a lot of options for the Indian State Telecom Company. According to Nokia, if the debt is not settled immediately, it will disengage its services.
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After Nokia, Ericsson is BSNL’s only option
As of now, Nokia controls about 40% of BSNL’s network. If Nokia makes good its threat, many people will lose their jobs. This is because the operator will be forced to fire some of its employees. BSNL has since promised to pay off the arrears in monthly installments before September 2020. Nevertheless, the Indian operator has not paid Nokia since March this year.
“In view of the COVID situation, we are now facing a huge financial squeeze. It is impossible for Nokia to inject any further funds to maintain the installed equipment, so it cannot continue to provide any further support, including AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) services,” Nokia said in a letter to PK Purwar, chairman and general manager of BSNL.
Presently, there is no official response from BSNL and its next line of action is not known. The Indian state-owned telecommunications company is the fourth-largest telecommunications company in India. The company is currently at an important moment in upgrading the existing 3G technology to 4G. Due to the loss of Huawei and ZTE’s partners in the construction, the Indian state-run telecommunications company can only re-tender 4G network equipment. Now, it is either it pays its debts or stall its operation. If BSNL does not settle this issue fast, it might start losing its customers due to poor services.
They spend a lot on arms instead.
nobody needs 5G, no big loss. Plus Nokia became a shite company, firing employees for no reason all over the world.
Nothing to do with 5G. They are upgrading from 3G to 4G so this is a big loss.
I think writer should study more on this issue. First of all in India, state owned company can’t fire its any employees in any situation. Secondly Bsnl have one more option it is Reliance Jio which is going to introduce its own 5G technology in 2021. Chairman of Reliance already have announced it. don’t worry Indian company very soon supplant ZTE and ERICSSON.
We don’t want to spend our money on defense. But if u have hostile neighbors like China and Pakistan then u have to spend on defense.
china has been sleeping with paki and bangladesh, india’s enemy. its only fair that usa will be india’s ally to counter china’s aggression. when cold war escalated to real war, japan and the rest of the south east asia nation will come to aid india (since china’s south china sea’s aggression has make them hate china too)
BSNL is actually quite rich over its decades of prior monopoly. India is in general plagued with bureaucracy, red-tape and endless corruption. If they bring it down to the situation where Ericsson is the only option, it would allow the company to manipulate the Indian government.
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal and Bhutan, are likely with China. Vietnam may not be, but faced with the thread of a land invasion likely will be at least until US can prove it can do something. The reality is like it or not, India faces the risk of being squeezed before US can do anything, similar to the fall of France and Poland on WW2, for the very basic reason that US can’t mobilize millions of soldiers to invade China or protect anybody within a couple of months, while China can.
Then the question is what happens o be attrition hits in. Will china invade Taiwan and deny all possible staging grounds for a land invasion, causing a stalemate that ends the war? Or will south Korea and Taiwan work as staging grounds for an Eventual fight for Mainland China?