The 2022 World 5G Conference will be held in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China on August 10, showcasing China's achievements in the 5G field. American experts believe that this 5G conference is an opportunity for China to promote its 5G products to potential customers.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Defense announced its support for a study focusing on 6G technology. Experts called on the U.S. government to learn from the lessons of the U.S.-China 5G competition and start 6G research and development work as soon as possible.
This three-day conference "aims to gather the latest achievements in global 5G development and build an international technology and industry cooperation platform." However, Jessica Brandt, director of the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution, posted on Twitter, "This conference provides China with a platform to showcase its 5G products to potential buyers around the world. opportunity."
Bateman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also believes that this conference is more like a marketing event and a trade show. He said existing international governmental and multi-stakeholder institutions such as the International Telecommunications Union or the 5G Infrastructure Public-Private Alliance Association are more important from the perspective of sharing standards for technology, conducting scientific cooperation and formulating global intergovernmental policies. .
Zhang Yunming, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at this 5G conference that the number of 5G base stations in use across China has exceeded 1.85 million, and the number of 5G mobile phone users has reached 455 million. These figures account for more than 60% of the global total.
Chinese equipment still in US telecom networks?
At the same time, some domestic telecommunications networks in the United States still use equipment from China, especially small communication networks mainly in remote areas. U.S. security officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations have warned that Chinese telecom companies, especially Huawei and ZTE, may be posing national security risks to the United States. They point out that if routers, antennas and radios from China are not removed from U.S. cellphone and Internet networks, they could expose U.S. state secrets. Previously, the U.S. leaders of Huawei and ZTE have stated that there are no backdoors in their equipment and welcome testing by the U.S. telecommunications department. However, the U.S. government insists that Chinese equipment will leak secrets.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission tweeted that in the "Secure and Trustworthy Communications Network Act," Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission to develop a program to help small and rural communications providers remove, replace, and dispose of products that may pose a risk to national security. communication equipment.
The FCC has reported to Congress that $4.98 billion will be needed to fund all reasonable cost estimates for . In the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress expanded program eligibility, established priorities for allocating program funding, and allocated $1.9 billion to allow committees to accomplish this task.
But some small U.S. companies say that while they want to ditch Chinese equipment, the money promised by Congress isn't coming fast enough to cover the cost of replacing it.
In response, Bateman said: "The major U.S. telecom operators do not have any substantial enterprise equipment from Huawei, ZTE or other Chinese manufacturers. U.S. small and rural operators are using a certain amount of legacy Huawei and ZTE devices. They are not 5G, but 4G or earlier devices.”
Biden signs the “Chip Act” to promote the manufacturing of 5G equipment.
US President Biden signed the “Chip and Science Act” on August 9. The purpose of the bill is to boost the United States' ability to compete with China and allocate tens of billions of dollars for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research. The
CHIP Act also includes $4.2 billion to fund the Defense Initiative and the U.S. broadband market, specifically including efforts to promote the manufacturing of 5G equipment that is not made in China.
Biden called the bill with bipartisan support a "once-in-a-generation investment" in the United States and said the bill would create good jobs, promote economic growth and protect U.S. national security.
Reuters reported last month that the U.S. government is concerned that China Telecom equipment located near U.S. military bases could be used to monitor or disrupt U.S. military activities. Bateman said that if this is a serious and overarching concern for the U.S. government, then the U.S. government needs to prioritize these operators with greater national security sensitivity when replacing Chinese telecom facilities.
Faced with the challenges posed by China to the U.S. telecommunications industry, Bateman said: "The United States needs to better deploy 5G infrastructure in the United States that does not come from China, and the deployment speed of infrastructure in the United States is somewhat slow. Who can take the lead in domestic deployment? Whoever deploys the infrastructure successfully will have an advantage in all subsequent economic activities, such as designing 5G applications and hardware," Brandt said: "The United States and its partners need to develop competitive, open and secure alternatives. program. This means everything from promoting open radio access network cooperation to supporting existing suppliers and attracting new suppliers to the market. They should also coordinate with each other to develop relevant international standards."
US experts: R&D. 6G, the United States should start as soon as possible
According to US Defense News, the US Department of Defense said on August 2 that it is supporting a research focused on 6G technology while promoting the modernization of communications and connectivity across the military. Other governments, including the United Kingdom and India, have also begun studying 6G technology. Bateman said that in fact, 6G technology is still in the conceptual discussion stage, and the telecommunications industry has not yet reached a consensus on the essence of 6G technology.
He believes that because of the relevance of the telecommunications industry to national security and economic security, U.S. officials should participate in conversations about designing 6G parameters and funding basic research and strategy.
He said: "If we can do this, it will better equip the Western world to avoid this kind of chronic surprise, when many U.S. policymakers did not realize that China was in the telecommunications equipment and telecommunications equipment because they were not paying close attention. 5G is already far ahead and will soon dominate the global market share. We really hope to avoid this situation after 5G. "
The 5G technology and facilities in Europe and the United States have not yet been completed, and now we still want to make efforts in 6G. Really. It's too difficult.
In any case, since the United States has begun to "make big moves" and wants to "surpass" China, although we are relatively well prepared, we still cannot take it lightly.
