5g mobile infrastructure funding legislation advances

In an effort to ward off advances made by foreign countries advancing 5G technology in the United States, a new bill has been introduced in Congress calling for more than $1.2 billion in federal funding for the same purpose.

The Utilizing Strategic Allied Telecommunications Act, sponsored by North Carolina Senator Richard Burr and Virginia Senator Mark Warner, would, if passed, require the Federal Communications Commission to delegate $750 million to be used for research and development funding to advance the new technology.

A separate $500 million will go into the Multilateral Telecommunications Security Fund inside the Treasury Department. That fund will be specifically used to facilitate the adoption of what is regarded as secure and trusted 5G equipment.

Industries across the U.S., including construction companies, have expressed heightened interest in adapting 5G technology, generally regarded as being around twenty times faster than current wireless technology.

Such technology can be used for everything from machine-to-machine connectivity, lighting smart cities, and reducing traffic congestion.

The new Congressional legislation is spirited in part by concerns that the Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Company, which is operated by the Chinese government, may get a jumpstart on 5G development in the U.S.
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“The widespread adoption of 5G has the potential to transform the way we do business, but also carries significant national security risks,” Burr said in a statement, adding that “every month the U.S. does nothing, Huawei stands poised to become the cheapest, fastest, most ubiquitous global provider of 5G.”

​By Garry Boulard

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