'Pathetic' performance has made U.S. 'well behind' China in the 5G race, ex-

February 18, 2022: -The U.S. government’s “dithering” has made the country “well behind” China in the race to build out 5G technology, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, as he was urging Washington to step up investment in the coming generation of internet technology.

Writing in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Schmidt and Graham Allison, a professor of government at Harvard, says that America is “far behind in almost every dimension of 5G while other nations which include China race ahead.”

The authors have urged the Biden administration to make 5G a “national priority.” Otherwise, they said, “China will own the 5G future.”

5G refers to the coming generation wireless internet that promises super-fast download speeds. But it could form the basis for industrial and military applications and create a way for devices to communicate with each other. That’s why it’s seen as a critical technology and one of the reasons China is moving quickly with its 5G rollout and future applications.

“The step up to real 5G speeds will lead to analogous breakthroughs in autonomous vehicles, virtual-reality applications such as the metaverse, and different areas that have yet to be invented,” Schmidt and Allison wrote. “Applications abound that could advantage a country’s intelligence agencies and enhance its military capabilities.”

The pair was accusing the U.S. of falling behind in several areas. They said that China’s average 5G download speed is significantly faster than the U.S.’s.

China’s median download speed was just more than 299 megabits per second in the third quarter of 2021 versus 93.73 megabits per second in the U.S., according to Speedtest, a company that measures internet speeds.

“Mobile internet speed is a central advancement of 5G, which enables a new domain of breakthrough applications with potent economic and national-security implications,” Allison and Schmidt said.

The authors also said that Huawei, China’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker, still dominates the market “although American sanctions have hurt Huawei.”

Meanwhile, China has been “rapidly allocating the most efficient part” of the wireless spectrum, called midland, to telecommunications companies. The authors claimed that AT&T and Verizon are using the same spectrum band for their 4G and 5G networks in the U.S.

Allison and Schmidt also said that China is outspending the U.S. regarding 5G.

“The pathetic U.S. performance in the 5Grace is a sign of America’s larger failure to keep up with China on strategically important technologies. China is also ahead of America in high-tech manufacturing, green energy, and many applications of artificial intelligence,” they said.