Abstract: This paper examines the governance of the mobile infrastructure equipment industry from the 1970s to the 2020s, tracing its evolution from providing wireless voice services for professionals and the wealthy to enabling the global smartphone revolution and the modern platform economy. Today, the industry underpins essential digital services, supporting major players like Apple and Google and emerging technologies such as autonomous cars and smart cities. The industry organizes its innovations into successive generations of wireless technology, such as 4G and 5G, with the latter being labeled by the White House as a critical "general purpose technology" of geopolitical significance. The paper highlights how 5G’s transformative impact has made it a focal point of geopolitical tensions, particularly after the Trump Administration blacklisted Huawei in 2019. This decision led several Western countries, including the UK and Sweden, to exclude the Chinese firm from their 5G infrastructure. The governance of the industry involves balancing the need for interoperability standards with the commercial drive for innovation, requiring continuous negotiation among stakeholders. The chapter suggests that ongoing geopolitical conflicts may lead to a less globally standardized industry. This potential fragmentation, or "balkanization," of wireless networks could reshape governance structures, presenting new challenges for global coordination. The analysis also provides broader insights into how geopolitics influence transnational corporations and international relations.

Bio: Professor Henrik Glimstedt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing and Strategy at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). He earned his PhD from Göteborg University and has since become a noted academic and advisor to high-tech corporations. His research interests include globalization of high-tech industries, especially focusing on the governance of innovation the mobile infrastructure equipment industry and the evolution of wireless technologies. He has contributed to understanding how geopolitics shape technological fields and the role of transnational corporations in international relations.

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