After the geopolitical tensions between India and China rose, the Indian government started cutting off Chinese companies from the telecommunications sector because of the potential threat to critical information. Multiple Chinese apps were banned from the country, and some of the biggest Chinese companies in the telecom space of India, including Huawei and ZTE, were ignored during the 5G trials. Huawei and ZTE have been fundamental to the rise of the Indian telecom sector as these companies have worked hand-in-hand with the telcos over multiple decades. But this time, the operators were asked by the government to ignore the Chinese telecom gear vendors, which opened up a larger chunk of the Indian market for the European vendors, including Nokia and Ericsson. In an exclusive interaction with TelecomTalk, Vinish Bawa, Head of Enterprise, Emerging Business and Webscale at Nokia India, opened up about Nokia’s thoughts on the exclusion of Chinese gear vendors from the Indian market.
Q. It is an exciting time for Nokia to be in the Indian market because the Chinese vendors are out now. The government doesn’t want them to be in the marketplace anymore. Now, do you see that being a very big positive for you in terms of market share in India?
“So, you know, let me answer it in a very simple way. I think Nokia has been one of the top suppliers globally and also in India. So we maintained our market share even before the geopolitical situation came in. So, for us, we respect the competition. I think any competition is healthy. Our market share was, and it continues to be in terms of leadership in India, the same. And, globally also, it will be like that only. In terms of the 5G deals, we have more than 250 commercial deals with us, and we have more than 450 commercial private LTE networks signed, so we are leading the game over there, and I think we will continue to do so. In India, we work with all the four CSPs, we work with all the hyperscalers and enterprises, be it government or private, and we work with all the cable operators and ISPs. We have a huge market share here, and we will continue to do that. I think, with or without the geopolitical scenario, we are proud of the market share, and we respect the competition. Nokia is the number one supplier in India, and we will hopefully continue like that,” said, Bawa. This is the view of Nokia when it comes to the exclusion of Chinese vendors from the Indian telecom space. Nokia certainly respects the competition and isn’t afraid of losing market share regardless of whether the Chinese companies are there or not.
