The Trump administration announced plans on Thursday to come up with a strategy for supporting the development of next-generation wireless networks known as “5G.”

“We will prioritize efforts to accelerate the private sector’s development of 5G, so that the American people can reap the rewards of this incredible technology,” White House adviser Michael Kratsios said, according to Reuters.

As anticipation builds for 5G, telecommunications gear Nokia said it has made some 5G deals but still plans to cut thousands of jobs in a new round of cost-cutting,

The administration isn’t calling for any specific action other than reports from various agencies due in about six months, and the development of the strategy itself in about nine months. It released a presidential memo on the subject Thursday, days ahead of the highly contested midterm elections on Nov. 6.

Big wireless telecoms such as AT&T and Verizon are spending billions creating their own 5G networks which are designed to support far more high-speed mobile video watching than current networks support, a growing number of smart devices in the home and even self-driving cars over the coming years.

5G offers the promise of 100-times faster speeds than current 4G technology. It also will reduce latency, according to the FCC.

Industry trade group CTIA praised the moves by the administration “recognizing the importance of establishing a national spectrum strategy. With the right approach based on licensed wireless spectrum, America’s wireless carriers will invest hundreds of billions of dollars and create millions of jobs,” Reuters reported.

The 5G announcement came two days after the FCC voted to make more wireless spectrum available for devices such as WiFi routers and Internet of Things devices like those used for “smart homes: as well as fitness trackers.

Nokia cuts jobs

Nokia, meanwhile, reported Thursday lower third-quarter earnings and said it would start a new cost-cutting program as it waits for demand for the new 5G systems to pick up.

The Finnish company said its net profit for the July-September period fell to 309 million euros ($352 million) from 516 million euros a year earlier. Sales were nearly flat at 5.5 billion euros.

The cost cuts will come on top of a current 1.2 billion-euro savings plan launched shortly after the 2016 acquisition of the French-U.S competitor Alcatel-Lucent.

Nokia didn’t provide details on the expected job cuts from the new scheme but its CEO said in an interview with CNBC that “thousands” of people were expected to be laid off globally.

In an investor call later Thursday, he said redundancies would largely be a result of Nokia’s further investments in digitalization and automation to increase productivity.

CEO Rajeev Suri said the United States has witnessed several 5G deals already in the third quarter – including a major $3.5 billion Nokia contract with T-Mobile in July – and said this trend was expected to take on in China, Japan, South Korea and the Nordic countries in the fourth quarter.