The United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday listed Reliance Jio among the world’s leading telecom companies and called it a “clean telco” for rejecting Huawei tools for 5G.

“The tide is turning toward trusted 5G vendors and away from Huawei. The world’s leading telecom companies — Telefonica, Orange, Jio, Telstra, and many more — are becoming “Clean Telcos.” They are rejecting doing business with tools of the CCP surveillance state, like Huawei,” Pompeo tweeted from his account.

The US has been critical of Huawei’s participation in 5G for a long time, citing security risks. Intelligence agencies as well as government authorities in the US and Europe, have raised security concerns over the Chinese company’s involvement in 5G on multiple occasions. According to a recent report by the Financial Times , UK authorities are also considering the removal of Huwaei from its 5G networks.

Last year the US had blacklisted the company, barring companies in the US from working with Huawei. The order has been extended to 2021. However, earlier this month, a Reuters report confirmed that the US will amend its prohibitions on US companies doing business with Huawei, allowing them to work together on setting up next-gen 5G networks.

As for Jio, the company earlier this month had sought government permission to conduct 5G trials based on design and technology developed by them, Business Standard had reported.

The company is one of the fastest-growing companies in India and has garnered major investments from global corporate giants, including Facebook. Most recently, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved Jio’s deal with Facebook Inc, which has purchased a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd for ₹43,574-crore, reports said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW