Possible 5G Network Owned By U.S. Government Sparks Outrage

It’s almost a given that everything that comes out of President Trump’s administration is going to be controversial. The newest in a long line of governmental gaffs is a leaked memo reportedly from within the White House, indicating that the president wanted the government to build and then control 5G wireless services. Predictably, the administration was lambasted for the simple existence of the memo.

There are actually a lot of things about this development to unpack. For starters, the reason for the backlash after the memo leaked is due to the weight that it conveys. This didn’t come from a rowdy startup trying to make a name for itself. This came from the White House, which Democrats and Republicans fiercely decried, The Washington Post reports.

Administration officials have since tried to placate the public by saying that there are currently no plans to create a 5G network that would be then controlled by the government. They also tried to make it clear that the memo was outdated and that it didn’t reflect the current sentiments of the administration or the president, Recode reports.

The White House even went so far as to suggest that it was nothing more than the musings of a staff member. It supposedly never even came close to being considered official policy.

Interestingly enough, even the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai weighed in on the issue. As expected, he claims to be against a wireless network being controlled by the government. Then again, Pai has been accused in the past of being a crony of U.S. carriers and competing with the government would certainly hurt their bottom line.

“I oppose any proposal for the federal government to build and operate a nationwide 5G network,” Pai said in a statement. “The main lesson to draw from the wireless sector’s development over the past three decades — including American leadership in 4G — is that the market, not government, is best positioned to drive innovation and investment.”