Trump Tweets Call to 5G Arms

President Donald Trump tweeted his call for victory in the race to 5G next-gen wireless broadband. That came the same day a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) update on Trump's tech accomplishments led off with efforts to goose that 5G effort.

Sandwiched between tweets about The Wall and not letting an "Isis wife" back into the country, was a two-part tweet the gist of which was that the U.S, had to win and a spur to companies to "step up."

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1098581869233344512[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1098583029713420288[/embed]

CTIA, the wireless industry association, which represents the major carriers rolling out 5G, provided an update, suggesting they had not only stepped up but were already running hard toward that goal--China is the main competitor. 

“We share the President’s commitment to leading the world in next-generation 5G wireless," said CTIA following the tweets Thursday (Feb. 21). "Thanks to the innovation, hard work and investment of America’s wireless industry, the first commercial 5G deployments are happening now, in communities across the country. With the Administration's continued backing, the U.S. wireless industry can bring more robust 5G networks to more communities faster.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has made 5G rollout a priority as well, cited new Cisco stats to indicate the U.S. is running strong as well as hard. "In the global race to 5G, we’re in a good position coming out of the starting blocks because we’ve been forward-looking on both infrastructure and spectrum policy—key components of the FCC’s 5G FAST Plan," he blogged Thursday (Feb. 21) about the upcoming FCC March meeting, which will include a 5G related item.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.