If the White House is intent on beating the world in the aggressive race to develop 5G, the administration should approve the $26.5 billion merger between Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc., according to New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin.

"If it is really important to the administration to be first in 5G and have a more robust set of infrastructure in the U.S. than China, Japan and Korea do, then they should let the deal go through," Chaplin said Friday on CNBC's “The Exchange.”