Updated Monday:

President Donald Trump’s national security team is mulling the creation of a high-speed 5G wireless network within the next three years in an effort to guard against China, according to a report in Axios on Sunday.

Axios claimed it has seen documents that revealed security officials stating that the U.S. needs a centralized nationwide 5G network “to protect America against China and other bad actors.” The report claimed that currently there is some debate over whether the government pays for and owns the network, or whether carriers will be asked to form a consortium and build the network.

However, on Monday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai came out strongly against a government-run 5G network. “I oppose any proposal for the federal government to build and operate a nationwide 5G network,” Chairman Ajit Pai said according to Axios.

What’s more, a report in Recode cited multiple sources in the Trump administration saying the memo cited was dated. They also said the idea had “merely been floated by a staff member, not a reflection of some imminent, major policy announcement,” which in any case might never come.

The obtained document, a PowerPoint presentation, was titled, “The Eisenhower National Highway System for the Information Age.” It’s an apparent reference to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s federally controlled system of roads and highways, only in the modern era this would mean what used to be called the information superhighway.

The documents suggest that with emerging technologies such as self-driving cars and in general our ever-growing reliance on technology, the threat of cyberattacks from possible enemies of America requires the government to create higher walls to penetrate. The document even goes as far to compare current security to a medieval walled city, demonstrated in a picture.

Since the inception of mobile networks, they have been controlled by private entities, but the slides suggest that the government needs to step in and develop a more secure system. “China has achieved a dominant position in the manufacture and operation of network infrastructure,” reads one slide, “China is the dominant malicious actor in the Information Domain.”

Reuters reported that it had been given information regarding the move, and indeed the proposal is currently being mulled over but only at a “low level” within the administration. It’s believed it may be six to eight months before Trump makes any decision on it.

For Trump, nationalization of a mobile network would go against his administration’s belief that deregulation and privatization is best for a healthy economy.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr