Indian telcos, rather as we expected, have called for China’s Huawei and ZTE to be included in the country’s 5G trials ahead of impending spectrum auctions that had been postponed further as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The operators have written to India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) urging it to scrap restrictions on 5G lab trials, imposed on participants from countries sharing a land border with the country. This is code for China, given that the other six countries on that list – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh – are not in the frame. The letter, sent via Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), implied that India’s 5G deployment program, already lagging those of most peer…