I recently found myself re-watching the office for the seventh time in an attempt to escape having to write this very blog post. I got to the episode in which Michael is stressing over an article he read in a magazine about the rising dominance of China and the fear that the U.S. will no longer be number one. This has been a subject of interest for many around the world as the Chinese economy is poised to overtake the United States’ in the coming years. However, I feel that size of an economy means very little compared to the innovation an economy exhibits regarding technology and new developments.

One of the current “battles” of this competition is the race to see which country can more rapidly develop a 5G network. A Wall Street Journal article examines this race and the consequences it could have in the near future. Not only would the technology allow for a much faster transmission of data to local college students watching the Office instead of working, but this technology is also essential for the coming development of “smart cities” of the future with features such as self driving vehicles and implementation of technologies such as VR or AR. In addition to this, the prize for winning this race could be the potential billions of dollars in royalties to be enjoyed by the first entity that establishes the technology and frameworks for its use and a head start in the development of newer technologies such as 6G in the future. The authors make the advantages of 5G well known in the article:

While the economics of 5G are still being worked out, boosters say the potential payoffs are immense. Companies that own patents stand to make billions of dollars in royalties. Countries with the largest and most reliable networks will have a head start in developing the technologies enabled by faster speeds. The dominant equipment suppliers could give national intelligence agencies and militaries an advantage in spying on or disrupting rival countries’ networks.

“As we face the future, we know deep down that the birth of 5G standards represents a new beginning,” Huawei’s chairman, Eric Xu, told the audience at the company event.

Hans Vestberg, Verizon’s chief executive officer, speaks of the technology in equally dramatic terms. “We are strong believers that 5G [will have] a very transformative effect on many things in our society,” he said. “Consumer, media, entertainment…whole industries.”

For me the article seems to showcase prominently Big Idea category, Business, State, and Society. This is shown in the competition between a country such as the United States where government is largely removed from business decisions, and China where the state plays a large role in investing in businesses that serve the state’s interest. This dynamic between the two makes the competition interesting as it seems to also be a competition between the two forms of government the countries employ in see which can further promote innovation within their borders. The U.S. government has even given some ground in this regard as it seems the FCC might encourage the development of 5G networks by overriding local rules, and tax dollars are being spent to fund academic research on 5G.

This competition is additionally important because not only the rewards of the developing the technology first are on the line, but also the risks of losing the race. Operating with another countries information technology always leaves open the possibility of espionage and potential interference from the country with the upper-hand. If China were to successfully develop 5G technology before the U.S., this could force the U.S. to operate with Chinese technology that could be interfered with by the Chinese state for political reasons.

New technologies have always been a key part of business history and they shape the way we live our lives and the benefits are immense to those who first invent and incorporate them into their societies. Whether we use 5G to procrastinate more efficiently by watching Netflix or utilize it to make our society more interconnected and advanced, fortune has always favored those who innovate, and I think we will find it the same with 5G.