While there are certainly those with a differing viewpoint, many stakeholders, particularly the U.S. government, like to characterize 5G as a race, the winner of which will be able to exert economic supremacy as cellular-based automation drives transformation and value creation in a wide range of enterprise and industrial verticals.
Right now that race has two apparent leaders–the U.S. and China, countries that are currently locked in an escalating trade war that is using the telecom industry as a proxy battlefront. In fact, China’s Huawei is regularly a target of U.S. defense officials who claim the company’s network gear can be used by the Chinese government to advance cyber snooping. The U.S. is even putting pressure on U.S. allies like the United Kingdom and Germany to distance themselves from Huawei as the countries develop plans and guidance for private sector investment in 5G.
When you look at the global power map, the U.S. and China are givens as is Russia, which has developed its own 5G plans. Back in February Russia’s President Vladimir Putin name-checked 5G when discussing the country’s “master plan for the development of the digital economy infrastructure…In this, we need to look forward. The challenge for the upcoming years is to organize universal access to high-speed internet, to start operation of the fifth-generation communication systems,” according to TASS coverage of Putin’s State of the Nation speech.
Given Putin’s prioritization of 5G, it may seem dissonant that RT America, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Russia Today, a state-owned “news outlet” widely regarded as the government’s propaganda apparatus, is apparently ramping up coverage around the unfounded health concerns associated with 5G.
RT, which was a key piece of Russia’s interference campaign in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, recently aired a spot dubbing 5G an “experiment on humanity.” According to analysis by the New York Times, last year RT America only ran one spot on the health implications of 5G but, so far this year, as American carriers Verizon and AT&T expand commercial 5G offerings, has run seven additional video spots.
Ryan Fox of New Knowledge, which describes itself as providing “an advanced, reliable disinformation solution to national security agencies, responsible leaders and trusted brands,” told the New York Times RT America is engaged in “economic warfare” on behalf of Russia which he said, “doesn’t have a good 5G play, so it tries to undermine and discredit ours.”
