5G Race: China Narrowly Ahead Of South Korea And The US

A newly released report 5G report says China is currently the most ready followed by South Korea and then the United states. The report by CTIA notes though that many countries may be finally making the right investment to make this a reality. While much of the world is still reaping the benefits of the 4G, it looks like 5G promises more on return on investment. Take the United States for example, the report notes that the wireless industry is ready to pump in as much as $275 billion which they say could end up creating 3 million new jobs and another $500 billion to the nation’s GDP.

While China leads the charge right now, it looks like its narrow but China is not one to back out from such a race as investment in technology has sky rocketed in the last decade alone. Research and development spending has been growing at a 20 percent rate in China versus 5 percent in the United States but not too long ago and 2004 to be precise, the US was spending four times more than China in research and development. This has made analysts to believe that China in less than ten years from now will actually surpass the US in this area.

According to this USA Today report, “While the United States is still at the top in total investment in research and development — spending $500 billion in 2015 —  a new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study released Monday has made a startling finding: A couple of years ago, China quietly surpassed the U.S. in spending on the later stage of R&D that turns discoveries into commercial products. And at its current rate of spending, China will invest up to twice as much as the U.S., or $658 billion, by 2018 on this critical late-stage research.”

They also said America “has the potential to reverse the trend through better collaboration among private industry, universities and research consortia. Such a shift would increase annual manufacturing output by 5%, or $100 billion, and add 700,000 factory jobs and another 1.9 million in other sectors through ripple effects.”

Maybe the tax break will eventually encourage more companies to save more and make the necessary investment in research and development but sadly that may not be the case. Today is tax day in the US and reports show that most companies have decided to put more money in the pockets of shareholders rather than hire more and make aggressive expansions to accommodate innovation.

That said, experts still believe the race just started and that the US can come out top eventually with companies like Verizon and AT&T making sure they bring the technology to some cities by the end of 2018. But as the report notes, collaboration is key The United States needs a clearer plan for the distribution of radio frequencies, similar to what’s been declared in China and South Korea, CTIA said. Furthermore, administrators still need to institute some essential enactment to clear a path for a foundation upgrade, as indicated by the report. CTIA itself is campaigning for such changes.

“The United States will not get a second chance to win the global 5G race,” CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker said in a statement. He continued that “Today’s research highlights the importance of policymaker action in 2018.

The US government has demonstrated before that it needs to win the 5G race, and is conscious of the risk originating from China.

There’s a similar report from Accenture as well and you can see it here.

Read the full report below;

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