India bans Chinese networking kit over security fears

The Indian government has blocked all Chinese mobile networking equipment sales

The Indian government has banned local firms from buying Chinese mobile networking hardware after fears of a plague of embedded malware.

Indian officials believe that Chinese intelligence services could be embedding malware in networking equipment and using it to monitor phone conversations and possibly bring down a network.

The government has also demanded that the installation and operation of the Indian mobile backbone must be carried out by local engineering companies.

"All service providers have to submit details of the equipment used, and their applications will have to get security clearance from the home ministry," Satyendra Prakash, a telecoms ministry spokesman, told Associated Press.

It was reported last week that Chinese hackers had successfully infiltrated Indian government systems, and the two countries are increasingly taking protectionist measures to safeguard home enterprises.

The move will be good news for US and European suppliers, but is another sign of a worrying trade war between India and China in the booming technology sector. The number of mobile phone users in India is expected to double to more than one billion by 2014.

This is not the first time that the Indian government has acted against Chinese technology. Last year handsets from China that did not have IMEA identification numbers were banned in India.