White House Wants Quick 5G Deployment, Colwell Tells FSF

The White House wants 5G to be deployed “rapidly, using a free-enterprise-drive approach,” Robin Colwell, special assistant to the president for technology, telecommunications and cybersecurity policy-National Economic Council, told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. “Strong domestic deployment is an absolute imperative for us, both to support a global-trusted marketplace for equipment and services and to deliver on the promise of 5G across America.” The next “killer app” will be “born right here and rapidly adopted worldwide,” she said. The FCC’s upcoming $9 billion 5G Fund “will help ensure that rural America is not left behind in the evolution to 5G,” she said: “It is impossible to overstate the critical importance of mid-band spectrum to 5G domestic deployment.” The FCC’s February C-band order (see 2002280044) “is a huge step in the right direction,” she said. The U.S. must lead on 5G research and development, Colwell said. “The latest market trends in network architecture, disaggregation, interoperability and virtualization” are “a very important part” of research, she said. “We must also recognize the opportunity inherent in the market trends and seek to accelerate innovation, which is what America does best.” The FCC plans a March 26 forum on 5G virtualized radio access networks (see 2002200058).