Secure 5G network needed in the U.S., but ‘no decisions’ yet on nationalization proposal, White House says
What is in this article?
- Secure 5G network needed in the U.S., but ‘no decisions’ yet on nationalization proposal, White House says
- Secure 5G network needed in the U.S., but ‘no decisions’ yet on nationalization proposal, White House says
- Secure 5G network needed in the U.S., but ‘no decisions’ yet on nationalization proposal, White House says
Secure 5G network needed in the U.S., but ‘no decisions’ yet on nationalization proposal, White House says
In terms of building the nationwide 5G system, the memorandum and presentation presents two possibilities. One would be to have existing commercial carriers build the network, but the memorandum notes that carriers have uneven spectrum holdings in different bands and questions whether carriers will be able to build a 5G network in the three-year timetable contemplated. In addition, any cleared spectrum—particularly in “mid-band spectrum” between 3.7 GHz and 4.2 GHz—would be split between the existing carriers.
Instead, the proposal calls for the U.S. government to own and operate a single network that utilizes all available mid-band spectrum, enabling greater overall capacity and allowing all security resources to be focused on a single system.
“If the U.S. were to build and run one physical network using the mid-band spectrum, it could lease time back to carriers to sell as a service,” the memorandum states. “This would allow the allocation of a large amount of bandwidth for the network by creating one block of spectrum in the mid-band range.”
In its story, Axios noted that a subsequent draft of the memorandum and presentation had been changed be neutral on the idea of whether the government or commercial carriers should build the network.
FirstNet—the U.S. government’s current initiative to build a secure, nationwide broadband network for public-safety use—was mentioned only once in the memorandum, under the “Infrastructure Standards” heading.
“These will be used to build the physical network infrastructure,” the memorandum states. “FirstNet has already accomplished most of the work on their standards, and these could be repurposed and modified for a nationwide 5G network.”
A slide in the presentation notes that 36 of 56 states and territories had announced “opt-in” decisions. FirstNet reached that threshold on Dec. 11, when Missouri announced its decision as the 34th state and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico territories also had made their decisions. Wisconsin and South Dakota became the 35th and 36th states to make “opt-in” announcements on Friday, Dec. 15, while the 37th state was announced on Monday, Dec. 18—the same day as President Donald Trump announced this National Security Strategy.
AT&T—FirstNet’s nationwide contractor—said any concerns about 5G deployment being slow are mistaken.
“We can’t comment on something we haven’t seen,” AT&T said in a statement. “But, thanks to multibillion-dollar investments made by American companies, the work to launch 5G service in the United States is already well down the road. Industry standards have been set, trials have been underway since 2016, and, later this year, AT&T is set to be the first to launch mobile 5G service in 12 U.S. locations. We have no doubt that America will lead the 5G revolution.”
Verizon did not return calls to IWCE’s Urgent Communications seeking comment on the federal 5G proposal.
A Nationwide 5G and Firstnet
A Nationwide 5G and Firstnet system combination reminds me of this TV series.
Continuum (TV Series 2012–2015)
con·tin·u·um
kənˈtinyo͞oəm/Submit
noun
a continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct.