The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday, two days after the Centre hit delete on 59 Chinese mobile apps, cancelled tender to upgrade government-owned telecommunications company BSNL’s 4G services, officials familiar with the development said.

The Central government had instructed BSNL to not use Chinese equipment for the upgrade, which is likely to cost Rs 7,000-8,000 crore. The new process was likely to disqualify Chinese companies.

The officials, following the atmanirbhar Bharat call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said they will encourage procurement of domestic equipment and technology.

Mahesh Uppal, a consultant on telecom regulation, said: “India may be the second largest producers of mobile phones, but 75% of the internal components come from China, that will make it difficult to make the sudden switch.”

The five key players in the electronics manufacturing, Uppal said, are Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Huawei and ZTE, with the last two being Chinese companies.

Huawei was also due to participate in the 5G spectrum trials, which are still at the proposal stage, according to DoT officials.

The DoT is in consultation with private telecom service providers to encourage the use of equipment manufactured in India.