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China is using the same tactics it employed to drive down the price of telecommunications equipment from Huawei to flood the US market with fiber optic cables—crucial underlying infrastructure for fifth-generation networks—a senior Commerce Department official said. "China is currently driving massive overcapacity in critical sectors including steel, aluminum and optical fiber cables,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, Commerce’ assistant secretary for industry and analysis.

The pandemic has put the spotlight on the challenges facing the nation’s wireless communications infrastructure. As patients and doctors use telemedicine; children and teachers use distance learning; and parents telework from home, our spectrum resources are being stretched to the limit. If we can’t create more spectrum, we must use it more efficiently. Just as highways into a city may have heavy traffic only during the rush hours but are largely open the remaining twenty hours a day, there may be opportunities for commercial and government organizations to share the mid-range spectrum.

Federal departments and agencies are lined up on different sides of a debate pitting the development of fifth-generation, wireless telecommunications networks against safety and national security concerns associated with the Global Positioning System. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order to approve satellite communications company Ligado’s application for use of frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum that opponents say would interfere with the reliable operation of GPS applications.