Draft Telecom Policy Bats for Sops to Use Indian Gear

The move could boost local gear makers and level the playing field with global manufacturers

- Jatin Grover

The government is looking to incentivize telecom operators for using indigenously designed and manufactured equipment, according to the draft National Telecom Policy (NTP), 2025.

The move could boost local gear makers such as Tejas Networks, HFCL, STL, and startups in the domain and level the playing field with global manufacturers, including Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, and Cisco.

Currently, private telecom operators largely rely on global companies to provide network equipment for rolling out their 5G services and expanding their 4G network.

The proposal echoes a similar provision in the 2018 policy that saw little implementation, raising concerns about execution this time.

"Incentives for telecom operators to buy domestic telecom products was also part of the last National Digital Communications Policy-2018. However, we did not see any implementation of the same," said Rakesh Bhatnagar, director general of Voice of Indian Commtech Enterprises (VOICE), which represents local gear makers.