India's Department of Telecom announced on Tuesday this week that it formally bans Indian mobile operators from importing much of the telecom equipment manufactured by Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE.

Though the department has previously informed operators in India to stop buying Chinese-made telecom equipment via unofficial channels, this is the first time for the Indian government to publish an official ban.

Prior to this, India's Ministry of Home Affairs expressed its worries that telecom equipment from some countries may have built-in spyware or malware, which will do harm to its intelligence department.

The Indian government has already published a ban on Chinese shanzai mobile phones that do not have International Mobile Equipment Identities before the launch of this new ban. The new rule will reportedly have great impact on the two Chinese leading telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE, because both of the two companies have plans to carry our large-scale expansions in the Indian market.

It will also affect emerging Indian mobile operators, who wanted to buy low-price network equipment from Chinese makers.