More than half of state-run BSNL's telecom equipment is from Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) revealed in Parliament on Thursday. Additionally, more than 10% of all of state-owned MTNL's — to be merged with BSNL — network equipment comes from Chinese manufacturers, though it's unclear whether these manufacturers include ZTE or Huawei. Huawei and ZTE have been under the scanner in India, given long-standing Indo-China tensions. Although both companies had been allowed to participate in 5G trials, the government reconsidered the decision after border clashes with China in June. In August, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told the Parliamentary Committee on IT that the decision to allow the companies in 5G trials would be discussed with the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, Dhotre, told the Parliament on Wednesday that the government had no plans to exclude Chinese companies (such as Huawei and ZTE) from 5G infrastructure contracts. IT Minister of State Sanjay Dhotre said that the DoT did not maintain data on where telcos get their equipment, as long as they adhere to security provisions given in their licenses. However, the telcos had provided the following information to them: In state-run BSNL, 44.4% of mobile network equipment comes from ZTE; another 9% comes from Huawei. This mean more than half of the company's equipment (53.4%) comes from the two controversial companies. In the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), 10% of the audit / equipment comes from Chinese manufacturers Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited told the…
