In an announcement made on Friday, US President Barack Obama said that an amount of $400 million is being pledged by the government for spending on research to develop technology for high-speed next-generation wireless network, 5G.

According to the announcement, the Obama administration will spend $400 million on the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative over the next decade. The initiative is essentially aimed at giving a boost to research related to 5G wireless networks.

The announcement of the $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative has revealed that a large chunk of the funds pledged by the Obama administration for 5G research will come from the National Science Foundation.

The announcement also disclosed that the construction of a four "city-scale advanced wireless testing platforms" will be commenced by the National Science Foundation in 2017. The cities in which the testing grounds for 5G wireless services will be constructed next year will be selected via competition.

Though the bulk of the funds for the $400 Advanced Wireless Research Initiative will be contributed by the National Science Foundation, an investment of $35 million for 5G research will be made by several bigwig companies including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Samsung, HTC, Intel, Nokia, and Qualcomm.