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India's fifth-largest telecom operator Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) has shot off a letter to the government, highlighting how the virtual ban on Chinese equipment is thwarting its expansion plans. This is the second letter in the last five days from the company, which has been vocal in seeking a level playing-field for telecom operators in the country.TTSL is piqued, because despite reports that there is no blanket ban on Chinese equipment, the case is different when it comes to its equipment, even if they have no relationship with network espionage."There have been reports that there are no country-specific restrictions from the government and certain restrictions on purchase of Chinese equipment apply only to certain security-sensitive areas of the country. There are reports that there is no blanket ban on import of Chinese equipment except for deployment in sensitive areas like Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh," TTSL wrote to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on May 14.Highlighting the contradictions in its case, TTSL said: "There are many equipment which have nothing to do with network espionage, malware etc.""Even such equipment have been rejected because those are from Chinese vendors. A few examples are equipment for microwave transmission, servers, SMS delivery platform and high-speed internet access cards. We request DoT to clear them immediately."As reported by FE on May 14, the stalemate over imports of Chinese equipment has become a full-blown issue, with the home ministry asking for a list of all applications pending for over four months. The ministry made this query in the wake of complaints that the security norms announced in December 2009 have paralysed their functioning. As a long-term solution, the government wants to put the onus of a first-level security check on technology imports on Indian telecom operators. In an earlier letter on May 11, TTSL had said that it has been informed that clearance would not be given for Chinese vendors like Huawei, ZTE and a host of others. However, it had said that DoT had not given it reasons for not granting clearance nor suggested what needs to be done by these vendors to satisfy DoT. The company said that the delay violates the licence conditions, as it would affect its rollout obligations. However, TTSL said that in the interests of national security, it is willing to subject its network to any security check by DoT and the security agencies.TTSL's frustration is understandable: There are no competent non-Chinese vendors in the CDMA space, where the company operates. Further, it is a recent entrant in GSM, where also non-clearance is affecting expansion plans.
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