America believes 5G network will cut China spying on phone calls

5G consumer demands
The US is believing that 5G wireless network is capable of eliminating threat from China spying on U.S. phone calls.

At present, US-based telecom operators such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and T-Mobile are in the process of finalizing their 5G network strategy.

Technology companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, ZTE, Cisco, among others, never promoted security as one of the main features of 5G that will hit the global telecom markets in 2020 and earlier.

In fact, these technology companies never tried to claim that the existing 4G LTE network is suitable for reducing cyber security issues on connectivity.

An official from US President Donald Trump’s national security said the US government is considering a super-fast 5G wireless network. The 5G network concept is aimed at addressing what officials see as China’s threat to U.S. cyber security and economic security, Reuters reported on Sunday.

The Trump administration has taken a harder line on policies initiated by predecessor Barack Obama on issues ranging from Beijing’s role in restraining North Korea to Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. strategic industries.

Earlier this month, telecom operator AT&T was forced to scrap a plan to offer its customers handsets built by China’s Huawei after some members of Congress lobbied against the idea with federal regulators.

In 2012, Huawei and ZTE were the subject of a U.S. investigation into whether their equipment provided an opportunity for foreign espionage and threatened critical U.S. infrastructure.

Some members of the House intelligence committee remain troubled by security threats posed by Huawei and ZTE. Issues raised in a 2012 committee report about the Chinese firms have “never subsided,” the aide said, adding that there was newer classified intelligence that recently resurfaced those concerns.

“We want to build a network so the Chinese can’t listen to your calls,” the senior official told Reuters. “We have to have a secure network that doesn’t allow bad actors to get in. We also have to ensure the Chinese don’t take over the market and put every non-5G network out of business.”

Major wireless carriers have spent billions of dollars buying spectrum to launch 5G networks, and it is unclear if the U.S. government would have enough spectrum to build its own 5G network.

Accenture, a leading technology outsourcing company, has estimated that wireless operators will invest as much as $275 billion in the United States over seven years as they build out 5G networks.

Last year, T-Mobile spent $8 billion and Dish Network $6.2 billion to win the bulk of broadcast airwaves spectrum for sale in a government auction.

AT&T will launch mobile 5G service in 12 U.S. locations.

FCC reacts

FCC chairman Ajit Pai said: “I oppose any proposal for the federal government to build and operate a nationwide 5G network. The main lesson to draw from the wireless sector’s development over the past three decades—including American leadership in 4G—is that the market, not government, is best positioned to drive innovation and investment.”

Ajit Pai suggested that the US government should do is to push spectrum into the commercial marketplace and set rules that encourage the private sector to develop and deploy next-generation infrastructure.

“Any federal government effort to construct a nationalized 5G network would be a costly and counterproductive distraction from the policies we need to help the United States win the 5G future,” Ajit Pai said.