back to article US defense department wants to fund open, interoperable 5G

The US Department of Defense is encouraging companies to build open and interoperable 5G, and it's willing to shell out a portion of $3 million to anyone who provides a solution. That's the gist of the DoD and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Sciences' (ITS) 5G …

  1. innominatus

    Countdown begins...

    Combination of US DoD and 5G - could this fire up the tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists?

  2. Mike 16

    not aligned with our standards of privacy and security

    It seems the leaders of China and various western nations are pretty well aligned on the desire for privacy (for the oligarchs and princelings) and security (for major contributors).

    The only disagreements are over precisely who should be in charge of "the lists" (of which monopoly gets which population, of which news is "definitely not fake", which troublemakers to watch, who runs elections, if any, and provides election tech, and the appointment of "independent" investigators...)

    Don't get me wrong, having open, verifiable standards for communication could be a real boon. It could also be a major boondoggle played for the benefit of the usual suspects (or "un-indicted co-conspirators").

    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Much Worse

      US oligarchs (from BEZOS to BRIN) have teamed up with sections of the US security apparatus(mainly CIA ?) and the Chinese elite. They are willing to perform wicked medical experiments on mankind, paired with draconic "lockdowns" on the populations.

      USG is led by an openly corrupt president, open to bribery from everybody, including the Chicoms. Also sanctioned by CIA, FBI and Army leadership.

      On the other hand there are factions of military intelligence and heroic civil men who resist this mafia.

      A Chicom telephone system is an obvious security threat, but too many people make a nice income from trading with the Chicoms.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Much Worse

        >They are willing to perform wicked medical experiments on mankind, paired with draconic "lockdowns" on the populations.

        Ohh kinky, do they get leather uniforms too ?

      2. Youngone Silver badge

        Re: Much Worse

        Could someone please fetch A/C his dried frog pills? He's raving again.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Much Worse

          Or take him back to Facebook.

      3. batfink

        Re: Much Worse

        Awww let him continue. We could all do with a good laugh.

      4. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Much Worse

        . . . and are these "Chicoms" in the room with us now?

  3. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

    Two-faced pot and kettle

    -> "5G is too critical a technology sector to relinquish to countries whose products and technologies are not aligned with our standards of privacy and security,"

    Ha ha ha. Stop spying on the world, then.

    1. steelpillow Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Two-faced pot and kettle

      TBH spying on the world is very necessary in these days of Russian and Chinese medieval barbarism. At least the US of A does not practice genocide.

      The nice thing about the US government 5G initiative is that the Open RAN ecology is based entirely on open standards, and commodity hardware leaving no room for vendor-specific spyware of the kind which such medievalists insist on the right to impose. Hence the presence here of shills desperate to diss it.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Two-faced pot and kettle

        >Open RAN ecology is based entirely on open standards, and commodity hardware leaving no room for vendor-specific spyware

        So long as you are allowed to do your own clean room build of the source and install your own certified binary on all the base stations

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    This Dept of Defense

    It pays everyone the same

    It limits access to weapons to those who have had proper training

    If gives people free government paid food and accommodation

    It gives free college education

    It offers free government paid health care for life

    Now it promotes open source software

    Seems like some unAmerican activities .....

  5. Terry2000

    I'm from the government and I'm here to help

    "This industry dynamic increases costs, slows innovation, and reduces competition, often making security issues difficult to detect and resolve,"

    Translation: closed source systems that use proprietary protocols are expensive and inconvenient to hack. We would much prefer every system uses exactly the same software. We'll even pay to help you write it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Bingo

      Here is an Open SSL version for all of your family and friends. Very fast, I promise.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why not skip 5G and jump right to 1T-USA and get the NSA to design it. They really showed that they know what they are at during the "Greek Watergate" where no traces of the modified running software was found in any of the usual ways - because the NSA modified everything that could be used to detect the modifications. It only showed up once a live dump the entire system was created and sent back to base for the analysis of a totally unrelated glitch.

    I wonder will "William George Basil" ever serve any time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Regarding the Death of Kostas Tsalikidis

      It seems Mr Tsalikidis was a hard working man who stumbled into an intelligence gathering operation. He found out that highest officers of Greece were spied upon. He should have immediately turned over the matter to Greek intelligence+military+national police. Then he should have stopped worrying.

      Apparently he took the matter home and it was way too much for him. So he took his life. That is my reading of the affair.

      Having said, that, this type of operations are going on since Adam+Eva decided to cheat on god and were kicked out of paradise.

      Hermann (the namesake of the German nation), arguable tuned into a spy+leader who turned against his educators, the Roman army. Without Hermann the spy, there would be no Germans.

      Erwin Rommel, general, was so successful in North Africa because he could read an American cipher, which the Italians had stolen for him from the American embassy.

      The British survived WW2, because they broke the Enigma cipher with all sorts of tricks, maths, hard work and dirty work.

  7. Claverhouse Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Plague on all of them

    It won't have gone unnoticed, either, that Huawei still holds many of the 5G patents.

    .

    I know very little about such science, nor care about the Yanks' usual ludicrous screams about Security and the Safety of Mankind; however --- though that company went too early to anticipate 5G --- I personally will avoid Huawei because I suspect they were somewhat responsible for the collapse of Nortel. Home to many inventions and patents.

    Not that Americans wouldn't have done the same to a competitor.

    1. Graham Cobb Silver badge

      Re: Plague on all of them

      I have no problem with you deciding to avoid any company you choose (I have several I will not do business with). However, I do not think Huawei were responsible for the collapse of Nortel.

      Plain old mismanagement, plus the interference of politicians, I think. Much like, for those of us a generation older, GEC/Plessey/Ferranti/Marconi in the UK.

  8. batfink

    Do we expect....

    ...that Huawei won't be invited to the party here?

  9. Timo

    Interop pros and cons

    $750 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the development costs of RAN networks. But it could go a small way in supporting interoperability testing.

    One of the unintended consequences of having an open (theoretically) interoperable system is that there won't be one company to drag in to fix it when things go wrong. It may support a new "master integrator" role for a company to fill, and bring its own price tag for that service.

    1. Graham Cobb Silver badge

      Re: Interop pros and cons

      Yes, but the companies likely to offer the "master integrator" role are probably the same companies the DoD are trying to bypass with OpenRAN. Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE, Fujitsu and NEC. Some of those have more to win/lose with OpenRAN than others but they will all claim to be the best company to integrate it for you.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Interop pros and cons

      I'm responsible for device test on a network that already uses four RAN vendors.

      Testing within a single vendor isn't so bad, but the number of mobility scenarios - which is where most of the problems happen - goes up with the square of the number of vendors involved. Of course nobody ever budgets for that.....

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