Companies may buy more from local cable firms

Kolkata: The budget proposal to raise basic customs duty on optical fibre cables (OFC) to 15% from 10% will increase tower fiberisation costs, adding to the telecom sector’s continuing financial stress, and jolt India’s target to be 5G-ready by 2020, industry insiders said.

Indian OFC manufacturers, however, expect finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s proposal to encourage telecom companies to source the fibre locally, thereby giving a boost to its domestic production.

Amajor potential deterrent to India’s 5G ambitions is inadequate fibre connectivity, given that well below 25% of telecom towers are linked by fibre.