US lists Reliance Jio among 'Clean Telcos', says they are rejecting business with Chinese companies like Huawei

The United States has listed Reliance Jio among the companies that are becoming "Clean Telcos", saying they are rejecting doing business with "tools of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state, like Huawei".

According to US State Department, Clean Network is a comprehensive effort by a coalition of like-minded countries and companies to secure their critical telecommunications, cloud, data analytics, mobile apps, Internet of Things, and 5G technologies from "malign actors" by relying on only trusted vendors who are not subject to unjust or extra-judicial control by authoritarian governments such as the Chinese Communist Party.

"Some of the largest telecom companies around the globe are also becoming 'Clean Telcos.' Orange in France, Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT in Japan, and O2 in the United Kingdom are rejecting doing business with tools of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state, like Huawei," the State Department said in a statement.

Last week, Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Reliance Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch and the same will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available.

He said the 5G solution can be ready for field development next year.

On April 29, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US Department of State will begin requiring a Clean Path for all 5G network traffic entering and exiting US diplomatic facilities.

The 5G Clean Path is an end-to-end communication path that does not use any transmission, control, computing, or storage equipment from untrusted IT vendors, such as Huawei and ZTE, which are required to comply with directives of the Chinese Communist Party, the statement read.

The 5G Clean Path embodies the highest standards of security against untrusted, high-risk vendors' ability to disrupt, manipulate or deny services to private citizens, financial institutions, or critical infrastructure.

The United States had designated Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE Corp as national security threats, saying they have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and China's military apparatus.