Trump Tweets on Importance of US Win on 5G; Comments Spawn Confusion on China

“I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible,” Trump tweeted (see here and here). “American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on something that is so obviously the future.” Trump said the U.S. should “win through competition, not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies. We must always be the leader in everything we do.”

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy near simultaneously highlighted the Trump administration's 2018 work on 5G and rural connectivity issues in the office's annual report. The administration's 5G work included the memo ordering development of a comprehensive national spectrum policy and a September OSTP-led 5G summit (see 1809280054 and 1810290047), OSTP said. The report also cited Trump's 2018 rural broadband executive order and presidential memo (see 1801080063).

Clamp Down?

A lawyer who specializes in cybersecurity said his first thought was the two tweets “portend” the long-awaited supply chain security executive order, expected prior to the MWC meeting. In December, reports surfaced that Trump would sign an EO barring U.S. companies from using Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment on national security grounds.

But others said Trump may be suggesting the order is off the table for now. “It appears the president would prefer to handle security risks regarding Huawei and other tech companies through less-restrictive means than an outright ban,” said Fred Campbell, former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau, now at Tech Knowledge.

“I read it as [Trump] looks at it from a very broad stroke,” said American Enterprise Institute scholar Shane Tews. Trump is looking beyond 5G, she said. “This is just a ‘hey, I’ve heard we’re working on this thing and it seems really cool and whatever comes after is going to be even cooler.’” Security experts have flagged the risk from the Chinese equipment makers but haven’t been more specific so far, she said.

Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager, later clarified Trump's position in a pair of tweets. “America must harness the power of capital markets & private sector to fund & build a state of art wholesale 5G network that is a model for the the [sic] world,” he said. The government “has underutilized spectrum it should share for the purpose. Americans (rural) deserve access to affordable wireless.” Something “is wrong with mobile broadband in America where we pay the most of the entire world for 1GB of data,” Parscale tweeted. “A 5G wholesale market from underutilized spectrum would drive down prices and improve rural availability.” Parscale last year tweeted in favor of a single privatized 5G network just months after the leaking of a NSC draft memo that proposed 5G nationalization because of concerns China could otherwise build a network first (see 1801290034 and 1806130095).

The tweets are in line with the administration’s long-standing policy goals, said Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy Project Director Larry Downes. “The administration has been a strong 5G booster from the beginning, and rightly so,” he said. “Though investors and consumers are having trouble seeing the big picture, 5G is about much more than just faster speeds, more capacity, lower latency and reduced power consumption." The new generation of wireless will enable "an astonishing range of innovative products and services, supporting everything from the IoT to smart transportation to AR [augmented reality] and VR [virtual reality] entertainment," Downes said.

Don’t read too much into the tweets, New Street’s Blair Levin advised investors: “Our bottom line is that it is as meaningful as his subsequent tweet on the arrest of the star of the television show ‘Empire.’” The tweets probably don’t signal a stance in favor of the T-Mobile/Sprint deal and could show Trump taking credit for U.S. progress on 5G, he said. The tweets could be related to a trade deal with China, Levin said: “It may mean something but it is like a clue in chapter 1 that the author is deliberately hiding until Chapter 73.”

“The administration has been constructing its 5G plan for quite some time now, with the big launch at the White House 5G Summit” in September (see 1809280054), emailed Robert McDowell of Cooley. “Along the way, the FCC, NTIA and other agencies have been working to free up more spectrum to help spur the U.S. ahead in the global race to the 5G future. The tweet from the Oval Office underscores how big a priority 5G is for this administration as it works to brighten America's economic future." McDowell said the tweets don’t address any single matter. “They are intended to be a general policy pronouncement, leaving the details to the expert agencies,” he said. “They are remarkably measured."

Reflecting Policy

Trump's tweets appear to largely reflect current administration 5G policy, although his caution against “blocking out” technologies in the U.S.' bid for dominance may “signal openness” to not outright banning Chinese companies' equipment, said American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart. “It will be interesting to see” how future Trump administration actions reflect the language in the tweets.

Umair Javed, wireless aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, tweeted that Trump’s message confused him. “Is the President suggesting that efforts to block Huawei and ZTE #5G equipment were not about security, but about competition?” he said: “Seems at odds with what we've been telling our allies.”

“I'll continue as a chief advocate for policies to ensure private sector U.S. companies (not government built networks) can fully compete & have resources to win global 5G race,” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly tweeted in response to Trump. “Similarly, we must fight other nations' deceptive & deceitful practices favoring their ‘companies.’”

“We appreciate the leadership by the Administration on all three legs of the stool needed to win the 5G race: more spectrum, siting policies that encourage private investment, and building the wireless workforce of the future,” the Wireless Infrastructure Association said. “We share the President’s commitment to leading the world in next-generation 5G wireless,” CTIA said.

Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., pushed the Trump administration in a Newsweek opinion piece earlier this week to “make shared spectrum available for a carrier-neutral, wholesale-only, nationwide 5G network to be built in the next two to three years across the entire” U.S. “This could be a kind of wireless moonshot (but with private capital) that will spur microelectronics manufacturing here at home, accelerate the deployment of next-generation networks, and show the world that Chinese wireless dominance is not inevitable,” Gingrich wrote.