5G Is Where China and the West Finally Diverge

Once upon a time (2G), Europe had GSM and European vendors, America had CDMA and American vendors, and Japan had PDC and Japanese vendors.

Since then the industry has massively converged, down to a single standard (LTE), and consolidated, down to a few vendors none of them American when it comes to radio access.

That's still the case for 5G. The issue is that the industry has converged and consolidated so much that there is little choice of vendors: If you're banned from buying from Chinese vendors (Huawei/ZTE) you essentially have to buy Nokia, who can then name their price.

Champagne must be popping at Nokia HQ every time Trump tweets about Huawei...