China Is Winning The Wrong Race

The U.S. lags China in the next big technological advance in cellphone networks. Here’s why it doesn’t matter

- David H. Freedman

At the end of March, mobile phone carrier China Unicom broadcast a 360-degree, 3D view of the Chongqing International Marathon that put viewers smack in the middle of the 30,000-strong scrum of runners. The images were four times sharper than the highest-resolution content available from Netflix. The live stream—billions of digital bits of data per second—was 20 times faster than current cellphone networks built with 4G technology can manage. China Unicom was demonstrating 5G technology, the next big leap for mobile networks, built by Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant that President Donald Trump loves to hate.

5G technology is arriving in the U.S. too—but not on networks built by Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of 5G network equipment. The White House is pushing hard to keep Huawei from grabbing an insurmountable lead in wiring up the world with 5G, which is expected to usher in a new technological age of driverless cars, smart objects, remote medical procedures, new forms of advertising and other things nobody has yet dreamed up. “The race to 5G is on, and America must win,” said Trump in mid-April. It’s no secret that he is focused on China, led by Huawei.

But which 5G race can the U.S. hope to win? There are really three different races: one to provide the equipment on which the new networks are built; one to roll out the services widely; and another to develop the whole package— the software, devices, services, and business processes that take advantage of 5G’s blinding speed and near-instant responsiveness. The distinction is critical because the U.S. has already lost the first race and may lose the second.