Going backwards in the “race for 5G”

The collision of corporate opportunism and Republican anti-government orthodoxy has pushed the United States backwards on the allocation of important spectrum for fifth-generation wireless networks (5G). Positioning the US as engaged in no-holds-barred competition with China, President Donald Trump declared in April, “The race to 5G is on and we must win.” With typical bravura, he then promised, “my administration is freeing up as much wireless spectrum as is needed.” Unfortunately, such is not the case when it comes to the most desired piece of 5G spectrum. Thanks to the Trump Federal Communications Commission, the effort to free up a large and important piece of 5G spectrum known as C-Band is farther behind at the end of 2019 than it was at the beginning of the year. Most likely, it will be spring before the FCC makes the necessary decisions for the auction to proceed. The “race to 5G” and the opening of C-Band spectrum will, by then, have spent two years treading water.

[Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Brookings' Governance Studies. He was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission from 2013 to 2017.]