Handset companies Lava, Micromax win in US-China trade war

NEW DELHI: India appears to have already started to benefit from the USChina trade war. US telco major AT&T along with rivals T-Mobile and Sprint have placed smartphone orders worth around Rs 2,500 crore for under-$200 devices with Indian brands Lava and Micromax, in a bid to derisk their business as Sino-US trade tensions show no signs of abating, people familiar with the matter said.

The orders by the three telcos—a bulk of which are from AT&T-—marks the first time the US companies, which operate mainly on the handset bundling model and source devices from China, will use devices made by Indian manufacturers. The order offers some revenue relief to both Lava and Micromax as well, whose smartphone assembly plants are under-utilised with the combined share of