Dozens Weigh In On Admin 5G Security Plan

The Commerce Department, as statutorily obligated by a recent law, sought feedback on how to best implement an administration 5G security strategy and has now posted all its comments. Around 80 parties weighed in, from the city of New York to companies like AT&T, Qualcomm and Ligado. One key discussion point across much of the input is the recent industry push to open 5G network architecture to increase the diversity of vendors at play (a challenge to China’s Huawei). Verizon, however, despite backing this “open RAN” approach, is urging the Administration “not to rely solely on the promise of open RAN,” the carrier cautions. “The strategic imperative of achieving greater supplier diversity will not be solved by open RAN alone in the face of the strategic government support enjoyed by untrusted suppliers.”