So I’m still scratching my head about the decision by CFIUS and President
Obama, to block the potential hostile takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom, on the
grounds that this represented a threat to National Security.
After looking at a number of recent articles, it is clear that there were
concerns that China’s Huawei has been trying to play a major role in the
emerging 5G standards. Given the long history of China stealing Intellectual
Property from the United States and many corporations around the world, one can
understand these concerns.
But telecommunications standards are developed by International standards
bodies, and companies that contribute technologies to these standards agree to
license them to any company that wants to develop chips to implement the
standards.
All chips are not created equal. A company like Qualcomm may be able to
incorporate proprietary techniques to implement a standard, or package the
cellular radios alongside other components, like the ARM processors in Qualcomm
Snapdragon processors.
None of this seems to rise to the level of National Security concerns. Unless...
Remember the story that came out late last year that some security officials in
the government were recommending that the government build the next generation
5G network in the U.S. for national security reasons?
Remember when it was revealed that Cisco had built “back doors” into its
Internet routers to allow government snooping?
Is this the next chapter ins “Spy versus Spy?”
One can easily imaging that there could be concerns that Huawei might build
“back doors” for snooping if they gain a major role in the production of 5G
chips. It’s not much of a stretch to believe that the same thing could happen
now that the U.S. government has rescued Qualcomm from the jaws of a
competitor.
Frankly, the only national security issue I can see in the development of 5G
standards and chips, IS providing the U.S. government with the ability to
monitor everything we do via next generation communications networks.
And then there is this...
Regards
Craig
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2018/01/24/qualcomm-and-leading-chinese-manufacturers-announce-5g-pioneer-initiative
Qualcomm and Leading Chinese Manufacturers Announce “5G Pioneer” Initiative
Today, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated
(NASDAQ: QCOM) held the 2018 Qualcomm China Tech Day in Beijing. At the event,
Qualcomm Technologies and leading Chinese manufacturers expressed interest in
working together in an initiative to support China’s smartphone industry for
the global opportunities that will be made available by 5G and introduce 5G New
Radio (NR) standard-compliant commercial devices expected as early as 2019,
announced as the “5G Pioneer” Initiative. Representatives from Lenovo Group
Ltd., Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd., vivo Communication
Technology Co., Ltd., Xiaomi Communications Co., Ltd., ZTE Corporation and
Wingtech Technology Co., Ltd. joined Qualcomm Incorporated president Cristiano
Amon on stage to give support to working together on this initiative. These
companies aim to accelerate the availability of commercial 5G premium tier
devices expected in 2019. Chinese mobile users are showing unprecedented
interest in 5G. In fact, the recent 5G Consumer Survey conducted by Qualcomm
Technologies shows that 60% of Chinese consumers are likely to purchase 5G
smartphones when available. According to Counterpoint Research, in 2017, seven
of the top ten global 3G/4G smartphone manufacturers were from China. There has
been great momentum in innovation and development within the Chinese mobile
industry, and the onset of 5G is set to further change the global mobile
landscape.