EDITORIAL: Trump administration must keep 5G free

The newest plan to nationalize a major portion of the economy has come from an unlikely source — the Trump administration.

Last Monday, Axios reported that officials from the National Security Council were pushing Trump officials to create a national 5G network. Leaked documents show the officials believe the country needs a government-owned network to counter Chinese espionage efforts.

There are two options for 5G, according to the documents. Either the government builds one, or private companies build their own competing networks. A source dismissed option two as a realistic possibility.

“The source said the internal White House debate will be over whether the U.S. government owns and builds the network or whether the carriers bind together in a consortium to build the network, an idea that would require them to put aside their business models to serve the country’s greater good.”

There are times when it’s an overreaction to label government interventions as “socialist.” This is not one of those times. Nationalizing the 5G network would be an unmitigated disaster. Socialism doesn’t work, and if NSC officials need a reminder, they should visit Venezuela. It has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but the government’s efforts to run the economy have utterly failed. Hundreds of children are dying of hunger from widespread food shortages.

Government officials should insist that type of mismanagement and destruction are kept far away from America’s cellular network.

Private companies — think Equifax — are vulnerable to data breaches, but so are government systems. Remember it took the Office of Personnel Management a year to discover a Chinese hack.

Fortunately, the members of the Federal Communications Commission are coming out in strong opposition. The FCC would have to approve the creation of a nationalized 5G network.

“I oppose any proposal for the federal government to build and operate a nationwide 5G network,” said Ajit Pai, FCC chairman. “The main lesson to draw from the wireless sector’s development over the past three decades — including American leadership in 4G— is that the market, not the government, is best-positioned to drive innovation and investment.”

The backlash has even forced the White House to inch away from the plan.

“There are absolutely no decisions made on what that would like, what role anyone would play in it, simply the need for a secure network,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. “And that is the only part of this conversation that we are up to right now.”

Here’s a helpful hint for the White House. When you’re talking like Bernie Sanders, you’re doing it wrong. Keep the government out of 5G.