Airtel and Vodafone Idea may keep Huawei out of core 5G network

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm are considering giving a pass to Huawei in ‘core’ elements of their 5G networks in favour of other companies to try and hedge risks against any future ban on Chinese equipment manufacturers in India.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea use Huawei and ZTE equipment for their 2G, 3G and 4G networks in certain service areas. Jio, which works with Samsung for its pan-India 4G network, is widely expected to go with the South Korean company even for 5G.
“Given how there are global security concerns regarding Huawei’s equipment, nobody wants to get caught in the crossfire. It’s better to be safe and deploy Huawei in the non-core part of the 5G network,” a senior executive at one of the telcos told ET.