Chinese companies using India as dumping ground for 4G smartphones

It's India versus China on the 4G battleground. Chinese phone makers have taken a substantial lead in the Indian smartphone market for the high-speed devices, leaving homegrown brands muttering darkly about how their rivals are dumping the handsets in the country ahead of networks being rolled out.

An executive at one of these rapidly growing Chinese companies rejected the accusation.

Local sellers are "having a tough time as the companies they have been sourcing from in China have themselves entered India," the person said. "They are having to look for new sources and thus have failed to catch the 4G bus so far."

Indian companies say these devices may not even be properly enabled for the kind of 4G services being rolled out in the country. Chinese companies are treating India as a "dumping ground" for 4G phones that may not have Band 3 or the 1800MHz band, said Vikas Jain, co-founder of Micromax, India's No. 2 phone seller. This is one of two bands on which India has allowed 4G LTE services, the other being 2300Mhz.