The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has cautioned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) against selecting ZTE and Huawei for its Rs 50 billion contract for 15 million GSM lines.
DoT has cited the concerns of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Intelligence Bureau as the reason for this. Prior to this, in its earlier tenders, BSNL had decided that Chinese vendors would only be selected for areas that were not sensitive and did not share international boundaries with China and Pakistan.
However, the intelligence bureau has said that this method of restricting Chinese vendors to select geographies in the country would not work, as gear makers were being allowed the facility of remote access, the provision to monitor data and voice traffic on networks from remote locations in India and abroad.
The Ministry of Home Affairs? concerns have arisen despite DoT unveiling new security norms for telecom gear makers. These rules were framed to address the security concerns related to Chinese vendors.
