As I’ve been telling you, I’m in lockdown with my folks in Dublin, Ireland, where I’m from.
The ritual around the breakfast table is to read the newspaper that gets delivered each morning.
And I nearly sprayed it with my coffee the other day when I came across this headline…
Belfast phone mast hit by arson after claims over 5G link to coronavirus
You read that right. Folks on this island are torching 5G masts, or cell towers. They say they’re doing it because these new wireless networks have a role in spreading COVID-19.
And last weekend, arsonists set fire to 30 5G masts in Britain.
These folks claim 5G is doing them and others harm. And I know from the emails we get that many Cut readers are worried these claims may be right.
That’s why, in today’s dispatch, I want to dispel the health concerns around 5G once and for all. And to help me do that, I’m drafting our tech expert, Jeff Brown.
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It’s where you’ll find the latest ideas on how to make money and protect your wealth from Jeff, Teeka Tiwari, Bill Bonner, Dan Denning, Doug Casey, Jason Bodner, Dave Forest, Nick Giambruno… and the rest of the Legacy team.
That’s why you’ve heard so much from me in these pages of late about the opportunity in beaten-down 5G stocks.
Jeff believes they’re a screaming buy right now. As he explained in these pages, with everyone spending more time online thanks to the lockdowns, our current 4G networks are stretching to their limits.
This will accelerate demand for the faster speeds and extra capacity 5G offers.
Some folks believe 5G caused the coronavirus. Another version of the theory is that 5G weakens our immune response to the virus. Yet another holds that 5G stops the blood from carrying oxygen.
It’s gotten a lot of folks worried. Take this email from one of Jeff’s readers…
What are your thoughts on the potential 5G health effects many people are concerned about? I understand it’s a controversial topic, but it’s very important in my eyes. Thanks.
– M.L.
Jeff went on Glenn Beck’s radio show to explain why these concerns are unfounded. As Jeff told Glenn…
With every successive generation of wireless network technology, these conspiracy theories pop up for 12 to 18 months. Eventually they go away.
At the simplest level, cell phones and cell phone towers emit radio waves. That’s a radiofrequency radiation. The key part to understand is that it’s a form of radiation called non-ionizing radiation. Our bodies have been experiencing this kind of radiation our whole lives. It’s completely normal. It’s all around us.
This type of radiation does not damage DNA or cell tissue in any way whatsoever. So not only can it not have any negative effects on our immune system, it also can’t cause mutations.
As Jeff mentioned, these theories have been around since we built the first-generation wireless networks 40 years ago.
Jeff again…
There was an interesting study in Denmark. It analyzed about 360,000 mobile-phone subscribers over more than a decade. The researchers were looking for a link between cell phone use and ill health. For example, a brain tumor or cancer.
The results were completely inconclusive. There was no evidence of any negative health effects.
The National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration did another study. They put a high-power radio transmitter next to rats and exposed them to massive amounts of non-ionized radiation. What they found was that the animals that were exposed to this non-ionized radiation actually lived longer than the control animals that weren’t exposed to it.
So don’t worry about 5G affecting your health. And don’t worry about health concerns stopping the national rollout of 5G.
There’s a long way to run for this profit megatrend yet. (More on how to play it in today’s mailbag below.)
But don’t worry…
Jeff shares a ton of great insights on 5G and the other disruptive tech trends he follows over at our free tech-investing e-letter, The Bleeding Edge.
So if you haven’t already, I recommend you sign up and add it to your daily reading list. It’s where to get all the latest from Jeff Monday through Friday.
And keep a lookout for more on the 5G boom in future Daily Cut dispatches.
I’ll be bringing you more on how this technology is key to the rollout of a bunch of sci-fi technologies – including self-driving cars… augmented reality… telemedicine… and artificial intelligence (AI).
Last Wednesday, Jeff hosted his “State of 5G” summit.
He shared with readers what he’s seeing with the 5G wireless rollout… and how COVID-19 is highlighting the need for 5G wireless technology.
More than 17,000 investors attended the event, and we got nearly 2,000 questions and comments from the summit attendees.
Clearly, Jeff couldn’t answer all of them. But he did answer some of the most common questions he got… like this one on the geopolitical ramifications of 5G.
Reader question: Thanks for putting on the summit, Jeff. I hear South Korea is ahead of the U.S. in 5G. If so, that’s amazing. How is that possible?
– Lee from Arizona
Jeff’s answer: Hi, Lee. Thanks for joining me for the summit.
South Korea did indeed launch the world’s first 5G network, in April of last year. And it’s also true that there is wide-scale deployment of 5G networks there, especially in Seoul, the nation’s capital.
South Korea gets the significance of 5G. So it’s very smart that it is aggressively pursuing 5G’s rollout. Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer. And it’s South Korean. It wants to deploy 5G-enabled smartphones faster than anyone else.
Deploying 5G networks in a geographically small country with dense populations is relatively easy. That’s why South Korea, Japan, and Singapore tend to deploy new technologies quickly.
But it takes years to deploy new telecom infrastructure in a country the size of the U.S. or China. This is why the major metropolitan areas are always the first to deploy this new infrastructure.
But I’d like to clear up a common misconception. There is an idea – often perpetuated by the mainstream press – that the U.S. is somehow lagging in 5G technology. The media typically claims the U.S. is “losing” the 5G arms race to China.
The argument goes something like this…
When most people imagine 5G networks, they think of 5G base stations, antennas, or miles of fiber-optic cables. In short, they picture the physical infrastructure that makes a 5G network operational.
And there are only three companies in the world that have end-to-end solutions for that sort of infrastructure: Sweden’s Ericsson, Finland’s Nokia, and China’s Huawei.
The U.S. doesn’t have an “American Huawei.” Therefore, the country is in danger of falling behind in the 5G race. That’s the typical argument we hear.
But the truth is that America leads the world in 5G technology. Here’s why…
If we were to get our hands on one of these 5G base stations or antennas, and we opened it up, we’d quickly discover that this infrastructure equipment is loaded with American technology and intellectual property.
That’s right. These base stations and antennas have thousands of dollars’ worth of American tech… mostly American semiconductors. These are the “brains” that make this 5G equipment work.
And look at the gross profit margins of companies that the mainstream media typically labels “5G companies”:
- Ericsson: 36.8%
- Nokia: 39.3%
- ZTE: 34.3%
Now look at some of the American companies that provide essential 5G components:
- Qorvo: 42.4%
- Qualcomm: 58.4%
- Cisco: 64.7%
Which companies would you rather own? I think the answer is clear. The American 5G-component companies are way out ahead when it comes to gross margins.
Are the folks torching 5G towers crazy conspiracy theorists? Or are they responding to genuine health risks?
Write me and the rest of the Legacy team at [email protected].
Until tomorrow,
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Chris Lowe
April 15, 2020
Dublin, Ireland
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