Moving from ‘secret sauce’ to open standards for 5G

Back in 2011 Marc Andreesen famously observed, “Software is eating the world.” Fifth-generation wireless technology is part of that evolution. Amidst all the hype about 5G, what makes it different is the simple reality that it uses software to virtualize activities that were once performed by function-specific pieces of hardware. Huawei would be disadvantaged if telecommunications networks threw off their old ways and began to think like Google and other digital-age companies. When Google decides to expand its server farm, for instance, open standards allow it to pick and choose among vendors. The current implementation of 5G wireless networks, in contrast, are still built using proprietary systems developed by individual vendors. If telecommunications networks used open standards equipment, Huawei would not have such a chokehold on wireless infrastructure.

A time-tested maxim is that leadership is about preparing for what’s next, not what was last. The contrast between the Warner-Burr proposal and the bouncing around of the Trump administration is a stark illustration of looking forward versus looking backward. The president got his headline proclaiming how 5G is a “race America must win.” But in the absence of a firm hand on the steering wheel—presidential vision and leadership beyond tweets and photo ops—it should not be surprising that there is no coordinated strategy among the various components of the US government. As a result, the different parts of the executive branch are acting like bumper cars careening into each other while going in circles.

[Chairman Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies. Wheeler is a businessman, author, and was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission from 2013 to 2017. ]