Fate of Huawei in the $6 billion GSM tender of the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) hangs in balance. The home ministry has set up a high level inter-ministerial committee to look into the alleged threat to national security by use of Chinese equipment in the network of BSNL.

DoT secretary Siddharth Behura has said that the company would give orders to Huawei only after it gets clearance from the committee.

Earlier, the intelligence agencies had expressed its concern over the use of the equipment of Huawei by BSNL. Intelligence agencies have in the past alleged that Huawei has links with the Chinese army. British Intelligence agencies also expressed similar views recently.

As reported by Telecomtiger earlier, Huawei is the only qualified bidder in two out of five zones in a BSNL tender of 92 million lines. This is the single largest GSM tender in the world with an expected value of about $ 6 billion.

Huawei has technically qualified for West, East and South zones. Swedish major Ericsson has qualified for North and East zones, said sources.

Being the only technically qualified bidder in the West and the South zones, Huawei could have got orders from BSNL under normal circumstances. In the Eastern zone, it would compete with the Ericsson and the lowest bidder would get the order.