Pentagon Talking To Ericsson About 5G Communications Plans - Defense Undersecretary

Pentagon Talking to Ericsson About 5G Communications Plans - Defense Undersecretary

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2019) The US government is discussing cooperating with Sweden-based Ericsson Corporation on developing 5G communications technology as an alternative to China's Huawei products, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions Ellen Lord said during remarks at a think tank.

"Right now Huawei and Erikson are the two providers of 5G," Lord told the Atlantic Council on Monday. "We [the Defense Department] are talking to Ericsson... what we are contemplating right now is whether we want to broaden our onshore base of production."

The United States, New Zealand and Australia have banned Huawei from developing their 5G networks, citing security threats. Washington is lobbying European allies to introduce such restrictions and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened to stop sharing intelligence with countries using Huawei equipment.

"Right now Huawei has very good capability at a good cost. Our concern is security and what you trade off," Lord said. "We need innovation infrastructure. We can do it but we haven't figured it all out yet... This is critical for us for military utilization."

Lord acknowledged that the United States needed to improve its effectiveness in sharing intelligence about 5G security concerns with European allies on the Huawei issue.

According to The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the discussions, European and Asian officials have complained privately that Washington's latest intelligence briefings for its allies did not share any sensitive information proving that the Chinese government has used Huawei to illegally obtain data.