“We want America to be the leader in 5G,” says FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “We want to put the building blocks in place so that we can have the possible fastest network so all applications can operate at scale. We think America is the best home for this innovation and investment. If we get it right, especially when it comes to a transformative technology like 5G, we’re confident that we will see even more competition and more innovation.”

Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, discusses how 5G is important to national competitiveness and national security in an interview on Fox Business:

We Want America To Be the Leader in 5G

I think 5G is coming online soon. We already see some American carriers doing trials across the United States. That’s in part because we want America to be the leader in 5G. That’s part of the reason the President and I are doing this event to highlight the early success America has had and to forecast some of the steps we are going to take to continue the momentum. We want America to continue to be the leader in this next generation of wireless connectivity.

We want to put the building blocks in place so that we can have the possible fastest network so all applications can operate at scale. We think America is the best home for this innovation and investment. If we get it right, especially when it comes to a transformative technology like 5G, we’re confident that we will see even more competition and more innovation. Ultimately, that’s what others will have to think about in terms of the appropriate regulatory framework. There’s no question that there have been serious issues raised about privacy and the like that Congress is wrestling with when it comes to regulation of Silicon Valley.

5G is Critical to National Competitiveness and National Security

At the FCC and across the United States government we want to make sure that our networks, especially our next generation 5G networks, are secure and reliable. We do have concerns about any company, any entity, that may have to comply with requests from the intelligence services of a foreign country. That is essentially one of the concerns (regarding Huawei) that have been raised here.

That’s why at the FCC I proposed banning the use of federal funding extended by the FCC from being used on equipment or services that come from companies that have been determined to present a national security threat. This is especially true as we emerge into this 5G environment where some of the networks could be managed from abroad using various software tools. We want to make sure that our networks are secure. That is the base level of expectation that any government should have.

We have to think very seriously about what types of equipment and services we include in our networks here. We are working with some of our counterparts around the world to emphasize to them how important it is to think about the security of these networks. The United Kingdom, for example, recently put out a cybersecurity report about that company (Huawei) that I would certainly bring to peoples attention. Ultimately, these networks are very critical for national competitiveness and national security. We need to make sure they are as reliable as possible.