US Should View China’s 5G Superiority Claims With ‘Skepticism’: ITIF

U.S. “fearmongers” who warn that China is “way ahead” in the 5G “race” and that “drastic measures are needed to catch up,” fail to see that China’s 5G stats paint a misleading picture, said the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Monday.” Some have “panicked” over China’s deployment of hundreds of thousands of new 5G base stations and “projections of hundreds of millions of 5G subscribers this year,” it said, but “understanding how infrastructure and subscription numbers are actually counted matters.” China distorts data by counting anyone on a 5G plan as a subscriber, even those who “only have a 4G device connecting to 4G infrastructure,” it said. The country counts individual base stations instead of cellsites, further tainting the data to appear “that the sky is falling,” ITIF said: Though China’s 5G ambitions “should not be underestimated,” U.S. stakeholders “should view Chinese operators’ 5G claims with skepticism.”