We've been down this road before. There were two 3G wireless platforms in 2007, and there were about to be three 4G wireless platforms. In the US, Verizon Wireless laid down the gauntlet. First, it opened its CDMA network[1] to customers' choices of wireless devices. Then, rather than backing the 4G platform that built on its own CDMA technology, Verizon endorsed LTE[2], built on the 3G GSM platform that was the foundation for rival AT&T's network
Verizon's historic moves led to an industry-wide ratification not only of 4G LTE, but of the communications industry partnership that gave rise to it: 3GPP. It sewed all 4G platforms together, establishing a single backbone for the global wireless ecosystem.
Failure might be an obsession of mine. I've been down that road a few times before myself[3]. But this occasion, unlike others, does not require a dissertation just to define failure in this context: For 5G's multitude of goals to be simultaneously achievable -- achieving connectivity, ubiquity, and affordability -- the global, collaborative backbone of radio equipment suppliers, telecommunications engineers, device manufacturers, and chipset fabricators brought together by 4G, must continue unimpeded. A collapse of global trade relations among the countries where these organizations are headquartered would render most, perhaps all, of these goals impossible.
Build the wall
On February 13, the US Justice Dept. announced it was expanding its existing federal indictment against China's leading telco, Huawei[4]. It was an official signal to the world that the US would rather risk isolating itself in 5G -- arguably the world's most important global market -- than be perceived as a customer of its adversary.
It's the US' new frontline strategy against the world's 5G wireless market leader,