Thursday, October 08, 2020

Free Market Coalition Makes Strong Case Against Government-Run 5G

On October 7, a coalition of 43 free market-oriented organizations, think tanks, and policy experts – led by the Americans for Tax Reform – released a letter supporting private-sector deployment of 5G and opposing a federal government-run 5G network. The letter was addressed to Senator John Thune, thanking him and his Senate colleagues for their letter of September 30 reaffirming the free-market path 5G deployment.  

I agree on all fronts with the coalition's perceptive letter supporting private-sector deployment of 5G and opposing a federal government-operated 5G network. The Department of Defense (DoD) should not be spending taxpayer money to go into the broadband business and compete with private marketplace providers who are investing billions into 5G networks. In other actions, the Trump Administration has endorsed the market-enterprise approach to 5G. DoD should follow suit and discard the costly and counterproductive idea of nationalizing 5G communications.