ZTE has received authorisation from the government to provide optical transmission equipment worth over Rs 2 billion to Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) for the network upgradation project. ZTE along with Huawei have also submitted additional documents to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) for getting their approval as a trusted source, a pre-condition for being eligible to supply telecom network gear under fresh contracts.
The approval for Vi’s deal with ZTE from NSCS came soon after the former submitted documents and specified that it is as an expansion and upgradation of the existing network, not a fresh contract. Even though the types of equipment in the network circle will also have Huawei, the expansion work will be proceeded by ZTE. The said upgradation is for Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh- Chhattisgarh (MP-CG) circles.
The trusted source tag is provided to a company after over 10 ministries do the due diligence to ensure no security threat. The security clearance was part of a directive which required the operators to procure equipment only from trusted sources, that too gear tagged as ‘trusted product’. The directive does not apply to the expansion or upgradation of existing networks.
