The battle for 5G is increasingly heated. And it's not a trivial game, for two reasons: the USA is at stake for world technological supremacy and they are rightly concerned about the momentum taken by the Chinese, through the Huawei group, objectively ahead in terms of know-how and competitive in terms of prices; 5G technology is the one that enables yet another industrial revolution, that of robots and artificial intelligence, and which will be able to determine competitive advantages for one or the other country, as well as envisaging a "cold war" of digital espionage .
A heavy and formal accusation has arrived from the United States on the latter aspect: the federal prosecutor's office in Brooklyn has opened a new proceeding against Huawei, accusing her of stealing trade secrets from six American technology companies and of having violated the law introduced to combat organized crime, including of the mafia type, as well as the law on sanctions against Iran. The reply from the Asians was immediate: "Unfounded and unjust accusations, they want to damage our reputation". And then there is the whole game, in this case political and diplomatic, which is being played out on European soil. Washington would like to bring Europe to its side and has also allocated investments of several billion to support the activity of European telecommunications groups that are betting strongly on 5G, to the point of being able to at least hinder Huawei's dominance.
From the point of view of the policies of the individual States, this moral suasion operation is working up to a certain point, given that a historic ally like the United Kingdom, which has further become Atlanticist with the triumph of Boris Johnson which paves the way for a privileged thread with his friend Donald Trump, has opened up to the ultra-fast infrastructures of the Chinese, albeit limiting their presence and totally excluding them from the core networks. Even France has not closed its doors to Huawei, albeit in turn with limitations especially in sectors including militarily strategic. Italy is currently waiting, but objectively the prices and the high technological content of the Chinese are tempting for everyone.
In Europe, the one who is emerging in a particular way to catch up with Huawei is Nokia: the Finnish company, which entered a crisis a few years ago, is rising from its ashes and closed 2019 returning to profit, thanks to 5G. It's right on Nokia, as well as Sweden's Ericsson, that the US - which by its own admission does not have a reality capable of competing with Huawei - is playing all its cards to build its own newtork and to convince its European allies to do the same. Perhaps even addressing the price war, on which Nokia itself has recently intervened, as if to send a signal – among others – to Italy: “The costs of 5G technology tend to be the same. Some vendors may discount, but ultimately the costs will end up looking the same." The game is wide open.
