Axios

A proposal from the Donald Trump 2020 re-election campaign to create a national, wholesale 5G network is drawing criticism from FCC commissioners on both sides of the aisle. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr joined Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in speaking out against the plan. Commissioner Carr wrote, "The US won the race to 4G and secured billions of dollars in growth for the US economy by relying on America’s exceptional free market values.

A global reckoning around the future of the internet is underway as autocratic regimes look to censor the internet in their countries, and races to develop new internet technologies, such as blockchain and 5G, heat up between the US and China. The next version of the internet could be split between countries that embrace an open web and isolationists that don't. It could also be fractured by different technologies that could fundamentally change the interconnected nature of the network and limit who can do business where.

Cellphone numbers have become a primary way for tech companies like Facebook to uniquely identify users and secure accounts, in some ways becoming a proxy for a national ID. That over-reliance on cellphone numbers ironically makes them a less effective and secure authentication method. And the more valuable the phone number becomes as an identifier, the less willing people will be to share it for communication.

The President Donald Trump re-election campaign sparked widespread confusion inside the Trump administration and the cellular wireless industry March 1 when it advocated for a nationwide "wholesale" 5G network, which is 180 degrees from official White House policy. The Trump campaign is now walking back the statement from Kayleigh McEnany, national press secretary for Trump’s 2020 campaign, saying they did not intend to set new policy. McEnany said, "The White House sets the policy on 5G and all issues.