India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on May 4 granted permission to mobile carriers including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), Vodafone Idea and MTNL to conduct a six-month trial for the use and application of 5G technology. The ministry said the operators would work with suppliers that include Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, while Jio will use its own homegrown tech. Huawei and ZTE were not on the list. Chinese Embassy in India spokesman Wang Xiaojian expressed “concern and regret” about the move in a statement the following day (May 5), stressing the contribution of Chinese companies to the nation’s infrastructure and telecoms sector. He said, “To exclude Chinese telecommunications companies from the trials will not only harm their legitimate rights and interests but also hinder the improvement of the Indian business environment, which is not conducive to the innovation and development of related Indian industries.”
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