India Seeks Huawei, ZTE's Ownership Disclosure

The India government has given Huawei and ZTE one month to disclose full details of their ownership on grounds of national security.

India has requested two Chinese firms, Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. to disclose full details of their ownership in one month, concerning that foreign telecom makers are a national security threat as they can have spying technology embedded in their equipments.

Huawei Technologies Co. (Huawei), China's largest equipment maker, is willing to reveal the source code for its network systems in a bid to convince the India government its equipment would not pose a threat to the country, according to Indian media reports.

"We are not able to comment on any specific measures taken or contemplated," said Ross Gan, global head of corporate communication at Huawei, "Huawei executives speak with the Indian government regularly and will continue to communicate the strong measures Huawei has put in place to ensure the deployment of high quality and secure networks for our customers in India and around the world."

ZTE Telecom India Pvt. Ltd. Chairman and Managing Director D.K. Ghosh said the company had met with India Home Secretary G.K. Pillai on Thursday, discussing matters regarding the purchase of telecom equipment from China. Officials at ZTE Telecom India confirmed the meeting but without elaboration.

Indian telecom operators said their proposals to buy equipment from China were being rejected by the government, despite the Department of Telecommunications, saying there is no formal ban on Chinese telecom products.

While there is no official ban on purchases, Indian operators need to get security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs before importing equipment from anywhere.

The move, which may keep Chinese firms out, according to insiders, will impose extra costs on India's telecom operators. In 2010, India's domestic telecom operators have seen 15 billion U.S. dollars in expenditure, compared with 10 billion dollars in 2009.

In 2009, ZTE had a sales volume of 750 million U.S. dollars in India, its largest overseas market while Huawei posted a profit of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in its last fiscal year.

Full article in Chinese: http://www.bocvip.com/2010-05-17/110440795.html