No American company makes the devices that transmit high-speed wireless signals. Huawei is the clear leader in the field; the Swedish company Ericsson is a distant second; and the Finnish company Nokia is third. It is almost surprising that the Defense Department allowed the report to be published at all, given the board’s remarkably blunt assessment of the nation’s lack of innovation and one of the biggest impediments to rolling out 5G in the United States: the Pentagon itself. The broadband spectrum needed to create a successful network was reserved not for commercial purposes but for the military.

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