After the intelligence agencies pointing out that the use of Huawei equipment can pose threat to national security, no one in BSNL wants to face consequences by giving orders to the Chinese major. In fact, the earlier controversy regarding its qualification in the tender has resurfaced.

In May, 2008, in a major deviation from its earlier policy, the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) allowed those telecom vendors who did not have manufacturing facility in India to participate in its tender for 93 million GSM lines. Some BSNL officials claimed that this was to make Chinese majors Huawei eligible for bidding in the single largest telecom tender in the world.

This was the first GSM tender in which any Chinese telecom vendor participate without under threat of being disqualified.

The tender conditions envisaged: "The eligible bidder company or its parent company shall be manufacturer of GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN). Such bidder company shall also be registered in India to carry out telecom related activity."

In the last tender Huawei was not eligible for participating in the tender as it envisaged that the vendors should be Indian manufacturers. ZTE submitted bids, however, its bids were rejected on technical grounds. Consequently, the field was left open for European and American players. US-based Motorola was also disqualified on technical grounds leaving European majors Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens and Alcatel (through ITI) in the field.

Last GSM tender was floated by BSNL in 2005. It took almost two years from the date of inviting bids to offering order to Ericsson. Nokia Siemens Networks, which was the other qualified bidder, did not accept the order.

Huawei, on record maintains that it is owned 100 % by its employees. But concerns over the company''s credibility as an independent company will continue to exist till the time founder and head Ren Zhengfei continues to be one of its so-called employees owning the company. Ren is considered to be close to Chinese military and he has served in the People's Liberation Army as an officer.