It took the industry 30 years to consolidate mobile communications developments into a single 4G standard with the introduction of LTE and the demise of WiMAX. That attainment—also in 5G—should be cherished; but it is imperiled by geopolitical developments.
While the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and long-standing concerns about cyber threats and national security are splitting markets and disrupting supply chains for network equipment and devices geographically, use of global technical standards and their underlying intellectual property are largely continuing unabated. It is impossible to stop that if someone supplies standard-compliant product.
