Galway businessman Declan Ganley’s company Rivada Networks is making a major move into the US telecoms market with an ambitious plan for 5G network access.
According to the Irish Times Mr Ganley’s company has a plan to provide 5G access to American consumers by making use of bandwidth controlled by the US Department of Defence.
Rivada has said that using this existing resource will lover prices for consumers in the United States.
The plan has the backing of former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, who served under George W. Bush, and is acting as an adviser to Rivada on this plan.
Other significant Republican figures who have expressed support and more for the plan include former Congressman and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush, who sits on the board of Rivada.
However Mr Ganley has said that this is not a one side political issue, pointing to Martin O’Malley, Democrat and former governor of Maryland, who also sits on the board.
This move by Rivada comes as there has been great debate in the US and Europe over the role of Chinese telecoms company Huawei in the rollout of 5G networks.
President Trump has made moves to block Huawei from participating in the US telecoms sector, clashing with Europe over its refusal to do the same.
Mr Ganley said that the Department of Defence’s ‘mid-band’ spectrum is ideal for a 5G network, and sharing in the natural resource of the radio spectrum makes sense.
Creating a network based on this would offer wholesale, carrier neutral coverage across a huge portion of the United States Mr Ganley said, adding that such a network would be open to carriers or other bulk bandwidth users on a level playing field basis.
This article has been updated with a with a comment from Declan Ganley on how the proposed network would be implemented
