August 28, 2020
Trump’s Campaign Revitalized His Proposal to Nationalize 5G
By Dafna Tachover, CHD’s Director of 5G & Wireless Harms Project
President
Trump’s campaign is reviving its proposal to nationalize 5G, which
means that the government will build 5G “small cell” infrastructure and
rent access to wireless carriers. Trump first suggested the plan in
early 2018, but it met with strong resistance from the FCC, the telecom
industry and Congress. The
plan was dropped shortly thereafter, and the Air Force official who
authored it was removed from the National Security Council and left the
White House.
Several
rationales have been used to justify the plan, including the alleged
need to win the race to 5G
over China; establish a national high-speed
wireless internet network; provide rural America a breakthrough in
quality of life and economic growth; and promote the US economy by
building a massive infrastructure just like the buildout of the national
highway system in the 1950s.
However,
when the main concern regarding China is national security and
providing a secure network, promoting 5G as a tool to beat China and
address cyberespionage seems counterproductive, as the main problem with
wireless networks is, in fact, cybersecurity. Wireless networks can be
easily hacked. A better solution is to provide fiber optics to the
home.
Fiber
optic infrastructure has been deployed in many rural areas across the
country and has already been paid for by taxpayers. Nevertheless, in
many cases the fiber optic network hasn’t been connected to the homes;
instead it has been used to connect cell towers.
Fiber
optic infrastructure would provide a safer, faster and healthier
solution. 5G has been promoted as an economic booster, and it is
supposed to be an infrastructure for the Internet of Things, driverless
cars and “smart cities.” However, the voices within the telecom industry that consider the 5G hype to be false are growing and some even say that it is perhaps “a scam perpetrated by an industry desperate for growth.”
One
thing is certain: the deployment of 800,000 5G “small cell” antennas
near homes and interconnecting 50 billion more radiation-emitting
devices, as this current plan dictates, is going to result in a health crisis. In fact, widespread sickness already exists. Ignoring the evidence is merely going to increase the size of the problem.
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