The president's national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on US phone calls, including the government's building a superfast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official told Reuters.

The 5G network concept is aimed at addressing what officials see as China's threat to US cybersecurity and economic security.

A 5G network is expected to offer significantly faster speeds, more capacity, and shorter response times, which could be utilized for new technologies ranging from self-driving cars to remote surgeries.



President Donald Trump's national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on US phone calls, including the government's building a superfast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

The official, confirming the gist of a report from the news website Axios, said the option was being debated at a low level in the administration and was six to eight months from being considered by the president.

The 5G network concept is aimed at addressing what officials see as China's threat to US cybersecurity and economic security.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has taken a harder line on policies initiated by his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, on issues ranging from Beijing's role in restraining North Korea to Chinese efforts to acquire US strategic industries.

Earlier this month, AT&T was forced to scrap a plan to offer its customers handsets built by China's Huawei after some members of Congress lobbied against the idea with federal regulators, sources told Reuters.

The US government has also blocked a string of Chinese acquisitions over national security concerns, including Ant Financial's proposed purchase of the US money-transfer company MoneyGram International.

"We want to build a network so the Chinese can't listen to your calls," the senior official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We have to have a secure network that doesn't allow bad actors to get in. We also have to ensure the Chinese don't take over the market and put every non-5G network out of business."

Major wireless carriers have spent billions of dollars buying spectrum to launch 5G networks, and it is unclear whether the US government would have enough spectrum to build its own 5G network.

Last year, T-Mobile spent $8 billion and Dish Network $6.2 billion to win the bulk of broadcast airwaves spectrum for sale in a government auction, held by the US Federal Communications Commission.

US carriers are well into the standard-setting process for 5G, and testing is already underway.

A Verizon spokesman declined to comment. Representatives for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Another option includes having a 5G network built by a consortium or wireless carriers, the official said.

"We want to build a secure 5G network and we have to work with industry to figure out the best way to do it," the official said.

Axios published documents that it said were from a presentation from a National Security Council official about the 5G issue. If the government built the 5G network, it would rent access to carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, Axios said.

A looming concern laid out in the presentation was China's growing presence in the manufacture and operation of wireless networks. A concerted government push could help the US compete on that front, according to the presentation.

A 5G network is expected to offer significantly faster speeds, more capacity, and shorter response times, which could be utilized for new technologies ranging from self-driving cars to remote surgeries. Telecom companies and their suppliers consider it to be a multibillion-dollar revenue opportunity.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Peter Cooney)