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China Will Likely Corner the 5G Market–and the US Has No Plan

30 points by devy 8y ago

tux1968 8y ago
> A crucial element of 5G is to give wireless companies the ability to monetize their services more effectively, to > ensure they’ll never again be treated like "dumb pipes" by online businesses they don't control. For carriers or > network providers, the great advance of 5G is “network slicing,” which will allow carriers to create, on the fly, > multiple customized virtual private networks for particular customers or applications. This will create a > high-priced, services-based, perfectly-billed-for ecosystem that’s very different from the 4G world. Wish this part of the article had gotten more attention here. This will be a game changer for what the internet looks like.
mark_l_watson 8y ago
Probably a minority opinion here, but I think China will provide services to anyone who wants to pay, including US companies. They are trying to win an economic ‘war’ not conduct cyber attacks via 5G gear. The US does have a plan to fight back: pressuring our allies to not do business with China. Anyway, I would like my country to fight an economic war based on great products and infrastructure. This means for a start getting rid of the corruption in the FCC that panders to outdated tech companies (cable) as well as excelllent tech companies like Verizon. And our great products should interop with China’s infrastructure also. I think a rising tide can lift all boats.
- PostOnce 8y ago
  We can't fight a fair "based on great products and infrastructure" economic war when one side is playing by different rules -- e.g. industrial espionage, copyright and patent violation, requiring Chinese ownership of foreign companies operating there, extortion ("you can't do business here unless you disavow taiwan/tibet/whatever"), forcing our companies to build products that support the great firewall or mass censorship or whatever else. It sort of feels like China is sitting in an old west saloon cheating at poker and yet acts surprised when someone pulls a gun and calls them on it. (The gun being a metaphor for tariffs, banning huawei/zte, arresting executive officers, etc -- in other words, forceful action.)
sonnyblarney 8y ago
The thing about this narrative is ... networks are physical, there's a lot of labour, trucks, people, access rights ... they take time to deploy and install. Greenfield places are obviously easier. The advantages of such things as 'temporary VPN's etc' are really not hugely apparent. They don't imply some kind of economic boon really - surely good for telco's but there's no huge economic impetus. Also consider that so many other companies, equipment, services, business processes need to be put in place to leverage all of this. I believe that the lack of true power of 5G relative to others, and the fact it will take quite a long time for this to roll out ... changes the nature of this situation.

30 points by devy 8y ago

tux1968 8y ago

> A crucial element of 5G is to give wireless companies the ability to monetize their services more effectively, to > ensure they’ll never again be treated like "dumb pipes" by online businesses they don't control. For carriers or > network providers, the great advance of 5G is “network slicing,” which will allow carriers to create, on the fly, > multiple customized virtual private networks for particular customers or applications. This will create a > high-priced, services-based, perfectly-billed-for ecosystem that’s very different from the 4G world. Wish this part of the article had gotten more attention here. This will be a game changer for what the internet looks like.

mark_l_watson 8y ago

Probably a minority opinion here, but I think China will provide services to anyone who wants to pay, including US companies. They are trying to win an economic ‘war’ not conduct cyber attacks via 5G gear. The US does have a plan to fight back: pressuring our allies to not do business with China. Anyway, I would like my country to fight an economic war based on great products and infrastructure. This means for a start getting rid of the corruption in the FCC that panders to outdated tech companies (cable) as well as excelllent tech companies like Verizon. And our great products should interop with China’s infrastructure also. I think a rising tide can lift all boats.

PostOnce 8y ago
We can't fight a fair "based on great products and infrastructure" economic war when one side is playing by different rules -- e.g. industrial espionage, copyright and patent violation, requiring Chinese ownership of foreign companies operating there, extortion ("you can't do business here unless you disavow taiwan/tibet/whatever"), forcing our companies to build products that support the great firewall or mass censorship or whatever else. It sort of feels like China is sitting in an old west saloon cheating at poker and yet acts surprised when someone pulls a gun and calls them on it. (The gun being a metaphor for tariffs, banning huawei/zte, arresting executive officers, etc -- in other words, forceful action.)

sonnyblarney 8y ago

The thing about this narrative is ... networks are physical, there's a lot of labour, trucks, people, access rights ... they take time to deploy and install. Greenfield places are obviously easier. The advantages of such things as 'temporary VPN's etc' are really not hugely apparent. They don't imply some kind of economic boon really - surely good for telco's but there's no huge economic impetus. Also consider that so many other companies, equipment, services, business processes need to be put in place to leverage all of this. I believe that the lack of true power of 5G relative to others, and the fact it will take quite a long time for this to roll out ... changes the nature of this situation.