Huawei has reduced its sales goal for this year in India by more than half, reports The Economic Times.
The Chinese telecom equipment giant has reduced its initial goal of between US$700 million to US$800 million to as low as US$350 million, according to the Times.
Huawei reportedly posted US$1.2 billion in sales back in 2017. The Chinese companies was also reducing its staff in India by 60% to 70% except those working in research and development, according to the report. It was largely in reaction to the recent border clash between India and China that has hurt relationships between the two countries.
A Huawei spokesperson said they were looking into the matter.
The report also said that the Chinese tech giant was expecting new orders from local carriers Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Ericsson was ahead of Huawei in its bid to supply to Bharti Airtel, the report noted.
The two telcos have used Huawei-made equipment for their networks in the past. The pair were not included in the recently announced Select 5G Clean Telecommunications Companies list by the US.
Their compatriot, Reliance Jio, was included in the list. Jio used Samsung Electronics equipment for its 4G LTE network and doesn’t use Huawei or ZTE.
Jio has the most subscribers in India, followed by the two telcos. “Samsung’s network business is attempting to supply to other telcos [beside Jio] but is yet to see results.” a person knowledgeable on the matter told TheElec. “However, Jio showed meteoric growth thanks to its 4G LTE network, backed by Samsung, so the other carriers will likely consider Samsung as a vendor for 5G networks.”
The 24 telcos US Department of Defense included in its list of “clean” companies are: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, GCI, Rogers, Bell, Telus, SK Telecom, KT, NTT, KDDI, FET, Chunghwa Telecom, Telstra, Optus, Telenor, Ice, O2, Orange, Telefonica, Elisa, Telia, Play and Jio.
