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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Plans for the U.S. government to build a national [soylentnews.org] 5G network secured against China [soylentnews.org] appear to have been quashed following intense telecom industry lobbying [fortune.com]:

The Trump Administration made a few announcements about building super-fast 5G wireless networks on Friday, but the real purpose of the White House event was buried beneath the headlines.

On the surface, President Trump and Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai were promoting the schedule for a new spectrum auction and funds for extending faster Internet service to rural areas. But the auction, now slated to start on December 10, has been on tap for the "second half of 2019" since last year. And the funds for rural Internet connections, which don't have to use 5G technology or even wireless, were just an extension of a long-existing program.

Instead, the real agenda was to try and kill a well-funded lobbying effort [fiercewireless.com] to convince the federal government to take over 5G airwaves and build a nationalized network that private carriers would have to lease from the government. Supporters included prominent Republicans Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove, as well as Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale [politico.com].

But the idea has driven the U.S. telecommunications industry, which is spending tens of billions of dollars to build private 5G networks, bonkers.

Ajit Pai talked about "up to" gigabit connections [arstechnica.com] for rural homes.

Also at Engadget [engadget.com].

See also: FCC "consumer advisory" panel includes ALEC, big foe of municipal broadband [arstechnica.com]

Related: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Proposes Raising Rural Broadband Speeds [soylentnews.org]
Ajit Pai's Rosy Broadband Deployment Claim May be Based on Gigantic Error [soylentnews.org]
Ajit Pai Wants to Cap Spending on Broadband for Poor People and Rural Areas [soylentnews.org]

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