The Issue of Government Nationalization of 5g Networks

No doubt, national security is a big challenge and very important for any country, especially for the United States in the 21st century. Due to the US government data breaches in the past and great security concern, the federal government (Trump administration) is considering a federal takeover country's mobile network to protect against China’s threat to U.S. cyber security and economic security. The US federal government wants to build a centralized 5G wireless network in the country to improve connectivity for smartphones, tablets, broadband networks, self-driving cars, remote operations such as medical procedures and running large machines in order to make the network more secure from external cyber threats. However, there is a strong debate going on and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman ‘Ajit Pai’, who opposed and said “if the federal government nationalized 5G networks, then it would be very costly and it would be distracted from the policies we need to help the United States win the 5G future.”

In my opinion, the new government is already being criticized and under pressure so instead of running a national 5G network, government should support the ongoing industry projects and let telecommunication companies do their job. I strongly agree with the Federal Communications Commission chairman’s statement “The market is best positioned to drive innovation and investment.” Therefore, government should set rules that encourage the private sector to develop and establish fifth generation infrastructure. The US government should make such policies which encourage and let wireless network companies do a better job in order to develop and run a better, faster and secure wireless network. According to me, it could hurt the private sector and the economy if federal government taking control of developing 5G network. Moreover, the carriers have already spent billions of dollars acquiring spectrum and beginning to develop and test 5G networks so if the federal government take over the project then it would be loss to carriers.

According to the course discussion topic “US Constitution as a framework for policy”, the federal government should have such a framework applies to the governance instead of government running such project and place some regulations in the constitution to make sure it protects private companies’ rights. Like Lawrence Lessig described four factors of regulating the Internet, similarly, government should release the restrictions on net neutrality, thus the wireless network will become less threatened our long-term success.

I agree with Meredith Attwell Baker’s statement (president and CEO of CTIA, a group that counts AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile members) “The government should pursue the free market policies that enabled the U.S. wireless industry to win the race to 4G.” This statement relates to the discussion forum topic “regulation of the internet, net neutrality, and framework for policy. By enforcing regulations and policies in favor of wireless providers, the wireless network work more efficiently, for example machines and appliances can also connect to the internet such as refrigerators, cars and health monitors.