The Battle For 5G
Time|June 3 - 10, 2019

Inside the controversial company helping China control the future of the Internet

Charlie Campbell
The Battle For 5G

Dennis Honrud’s family has been farming wheat in eastern Montana for three generations. Unashamed ly old school, Honrud sows only half his 6,000 acres, leaving the rest fallow to avoid soil depletion. “There’s not many of us left,” he laments. Like many workers in the global economy, the 68-year-old needs to stay connected, in his case to monitor crop prices and weather updates from his green John Deere tractor. So he asked a telecom provider to put a cell tower in his backyard.

The Honrud property in Glasgow, Mont., is so remote that it wasn’t well covered by any of the big four American carriers—Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. So Honrud turned to the local provider, Nemont Wireless, to install the tower. Today, cell service is pretty good. When the occasional car accident happens on the stretch of highway next to the Honrud farm, highway patrol officers no longer need to drive a mile to get a signal. Now they can place a call from the scene. If that hasn’t saved a life yet, “at some point in time it will,” Honrud says.

But there’s a problem. Like around a quarter of the smaller “tier 3” carriers catering to rural areas like Glasgow, Nemont uses equipment provided by Huawei, the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment company. The Chinese firm generated a mind-boggling $107 billion in revenue last year, selling equipment to customers in 170 countries and regions around the world. It also may be the most controversial company in the world.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 3 - 10, 2019 من Time.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 3 - 10, 2019 من Time.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من TIME مشاهدة الكل
Michael Crow The president of Arizona State on handling campus protests, embracing AI, the future of college sports, and partying
Time

Michael Crow The president of Arizona State on handling campus protests, embracing AI, the future of college sports, and partying

Since Oct. 7, protests and conflicts over free speech have erupted on college campuses and beyond. It seems that the job of university president has become one of the more stressful occupations in America. What's your stress level right now?

time-read
2 mins  |
June 10, 2024
The most anticipated summer TV shows
Time

The most anticipated summer TV shows

The sun is coming out, the days are getting longer, and life somehow just seems that little bit happier. But even as nature beckons us out of doors, the lure of the fluorescent blue-light box remains, especially as a season once associated with reruns and stagnation only seems to get more packed with appointment viewing.

time-read
6 mins  |
June 10, 2024
The decades-long build to Eruption
Time

The decades-long build to Eruption

WHEN MICHAEL CRICHTON AND HIS WIFE SHERRI FIRST started dating, all they did was hike. Every weekend there they were, taking in the scenery from the coasts of California to the mountains of Hawaii. The island of Kauai was their favorite place, its rivers carving through volcanic rock and steep, jagged cliffs cutting the sky. The couple would wake before dawn to be first ones out on the trails, and together they'd take in the sunrise.

time-read
5 mins  |
June 10, 2024
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES
Time

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

A new comedy takes on the unfiltered realities of pregnancy, motherhood, and friendship

time-read
6 mins  |
June 10, 2024
MOST INFLUENTIAL COMPANIES 2024
Time

MOST INFLUENTIAL COMPANIES 2024

From retail behemoths to AI pioneers, these are the businesses shaping our world

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
EL LOCO
Time

EL LOCO

PRESIDENT JAVIER MILEI'S MISSION TO REMAKE ARGENTINA

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
The parents who regret having children
Time

The parents who regret having children

NO ONE REGRETS HAVING A CHILD, OR SO IT'S SAID. I'VE heard this often, usually after I'm asked if I have children, then, when I say I don't, if I plan to. I tend to evade the question, as I find that the truth-I have no plans to be a parent is likely to invite swift dissent. I'll be told that I'll change my mind, that I'm wrong, and that while I'll regret not having a child, people don't regret the obverse. Close family, acquaintances, and total strangers have said this for years; I let it slide, knowing that at the very least, the last part is a fiction.

time-read
6 mins  |
June 10, 2024
Health Matters
Time

Health Matters

TICK SEASON IS ONCE AGAIN UPON us, and so are fears of Lyme disease. Most people who contract Lyme after a tick bite fully recover after a course of antibiotics-but for roughly 10% of people, for reasons doctors don't fully understand, the medicine doesn't take, leaving them with chronic symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and neurological issues that can be completely debilitating. Other people with Lyme are never treated at all, which can cause lasting issues without clear knowledge of where they originated.

time-read
1 min  |
June 10, 2024
Japan's ruling party burns through another leader
Time

Japan's ruling party burns through another leader

IT'S NOT EASY BEING JAPAN'S Prime Minister. Though the center-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated the country's politics for nearly seven decades, the top job has frequently changed hands. Fumio Kishida is just the third leader in the past quarter-century to last at least two years. Yet once again, change is coming.

time-read
2 mins  |
June 10, 2024
DEMONIZING RURAL AMERICA
Time

DEMONIZING RURAL AMERICA

By the time I was 7 or 8 years old, I was keenly aware of my father's drug use. He didn't snort pills in front of me yet―he saved that for my teen years—but he talked about pills freely, and I knew he took them. And by the time I became an adult, everyone in my nuclear family-and plenty in my extended family-was struggling to cope with the impacts of violence, incarceration, and addiction.

time-read
3 mins  |
June 10, 2024