He added that many Indian companies, including telecom operators, are already subject to stringent government regulations that would punish them for security breaches on their networks.

WSJ: India: Tech Import Restrictions Are for Security

The other telecom operators that currently own Infonet, including Swisscom (nyse: SCM - news - people ), the Netherlands' KPN (nyse: KPN - news - people ) and Australia's Telstra (nyse: TLS - news - people ), apparently "see little strategic benefit in retaining their stakes in this business at the current market price, " the analysts note.

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Both bills are a show of opposition against a potential change to the telecommunications treaty that could expand control from telecom operators to internet companies like Facebook and Google.

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That threat has prompted some telecom operators including Telefonica to launch their own rival services, while others such as India's Reliance Communications have preferred to sign formal partnerships with WhatsApp itself.

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When that happens, there will be new operators such as China Telecom and China Netcom that will need content.

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Existing telecom operators expressed concern that a state-funded player in the market could distort competition and damage the growth of services.

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The US and Canada quickly sought to place limits on any new rules and keep the international body's focus on telecom operators and protect companies like Facebook and Google that rely on, but don't own, the world's online infrastructure.

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U.S. and other foreign firms that export technology hardware to India have raised strong objections to the draft regulations, especially the fact that they would apply not just to procurement by government agencies something that has precedent in the U.S. and elsewhere but also to private firms such as telecom operators and Internet service providers, which buy a far greater amount of technology.

WSJ: India: Tech Import Restrictions Are for Security