Telecom licensing conditions amended: Defence, security new criteria for ‘trusted sources, products’

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday amended licensing conditions for telecom companies by including defence and national security as parameters in purchase of telecom equipment for trusted sources.

The move could potentially make it more difficult for Chinese telecom equipment vendors like Huawei and ZTE to supply equipment to Indian telecom players in the future.

The new norms also mean that the three telecom companies will not be able to use equipment from non-trusted sources for the setting up or expanding of network to utilise the 4G spectrum that they bought in the recently concluded spectrum auctions.