Apple's mettle in India tested in squabble over anti-spam app

An iPhone is seen on display at a kiosk at an Apple reseller store in Mumbai, India, January 12, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files

In India, the world's second-biggest smartphone market, Apple Inc's normally deft management of government relations is being put to a fresh high-stakes test.

For almost two years, Apple has battled India's telecom regulator over a demand that it allow the use of the government's anti-spam app. Non-compliance, the watchdog threatened last month, could result in phones being "derecognised" from the country's networks, meaning they would no longer function.