Nationalized 5G is Bad for Small Business, Advocacy Group Says

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) is voicing its opposition towards what it called the nationalization of 5G by the Government.

SBE Council’s opposition joins a growing coalition of organizations urging the government to prevent the Department of Defenses’ (DoD’s) takeover of the 5G network in the U.S. The Global 5G Race

Small Business Advocate Speaks Against Nationalized 5G

The SBE is arguing that the government opting to deploy and experiment with untested models for 5G would lead to the U.S. not winning the global 5G race. It opposes the ’ DoD’s plan to what it called starting to deploy 5G networks from zero. Even though there are other initiatives that are already on the path towards rolling out 5G networks. 

Rather the SBE is arguing for the private sector to take the lead in rolling out 5G across America. 

It is arguing that:

• DoD’s plan would cost tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and take decades to build a network from scratch 
• Nationalizing the US’s communications system would thwart private-sector ingenuity and enterprise 
• America’s private companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have already invested billions of dollars towards building national 5G
• The 4G race was won by America because the private sector was empowered to build multiple competitive 4G networks by freeing up the necessary spectrum and eliminating unnecessary regulations  
• Allowing the federal government control over the nation’s 5G spectrum would undermine the successful collaborative approach. This approach has enabled $2 trillion of private-sector investment in network infrastructure.

The 5G Challenge for the DoD

According to a report by the Defense Innovation Board, last year the DoD faced vulnerabilities in its supply chain both at the subcomponent level to the integrated network level in the 5G environment. 

In previous decades, the DoD was able to operate on tailored systems. This fulfilled its unique security requirements as a large user relative to the rest of the commercial world. However, with 5G that privilege may no longer no exist.

North America had some 1.18 million 5G connections during the first quarter of 2020. This is set to reach 10 million 5G connections by the end of the year.

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