DoT to bar foreign telecom vendors that exclude purchase from Indian firms

New Delhi: The Department of Telecom will bar telecom vendors of those countries that disallow or exclude Indian suppliers from providing network gears used for wifi, fixed-line and cellular networks, including 5G services, in their respective local markets, according to an official order.

The order is part of government’s Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order 2017 which envisages to source domestically manufactured products to encourage ‘Make in India.’

“Any foreign government which is not allowing Indian suppliers to participate and/or compete in procurement of telecom equipment, provision of clause 10 (d) of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order 2017 be invoked in relation to the aforesaid telecom items,” the order sent by the DoT to all central government departments and public sector units on February 19 said.

This includes wifi access points, routers, optical fibre cable, enterprise routers and related technology, integrated broadband systems, broadband transmission equipments, modems etc.

The section 10 (d) of the order states that if nodal ministry finds that Indian suppliers of an item are not allowed to participate or compete in procurement by any foreign government then it may restrict or exclude bidders from that country from eligibility for procurement of that item and other relating items to that nodal ministry.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade identifies DoT as the nodal department for implementing the provisions related to the procurement of goods, services or works related to the telecommunication sector.