The May border incident in the highlands claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers, the losses on the Chinese side were not specified. In late June, raising political tensions have already led to the Indian government banning TikTok and dozens of mobile apps developed by Chinese companies. Now Bloomberg, citing its own sources, reports that at the end of July, the Indian legislation was amended to prohibit the involvement of companies from countries with which India borders on land in the development of national infrastructure. China, due to its geographic proximity, is automatically included in this list.

The new rules are yet to be approved, but their implementation will become a burden for telecom operators operating in the Indian market. Huawei received permission this year to test 5G networks in India, but the May border conflict changed the situation dramatically. According to IDC estimates, local carriers expected to spend about $ 4 billion on the development of 5G networks. Many of them struggle to profit from existing 4G networks, so the increased financial burden due to the abandonment of equipment from Huawei and ZTE will only exacerbate the economic difficulties. According to analysts ‘forecasts, alternative equipment suppliers will increase telecom operators’ costs by 35%.

There are also those who are going to develop the 5G infrastructure on their own. This is what Reliance Jio Infocomm is going to do, which in mid-July announced the start of building a 5G network using proprietary components. The transition to new generation networks in the case of this operator will not require such significant costs as those of competitors. At least, the representatives of Jio Infocomm themselves hope so. Preparations for an auction on 5G frequencies in India have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and now the auction itself may be delayed until next year. The fate of Chinese companies in this context should be decided within the next two weeks.