5G Deal Won’t Stop All Flight Disruptions, Report Says

The conflict between a new 5G service and aviation safety has reached a truce, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (Jan. 5), curbing some of the feared delays because of the new wireless tech.

AT&T and Verizon have agreed to delay the 5G rollout until Jan. 19. That said, there’s still likely to be flight cancellations, delays and diversions.

This delay will give the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) more time to look into the safety concerns, and to tailor flight restrictions so that aircrafts can be properly protected from any signal interference.

The Journal writes that the view among government officials is that 5G travel disruptions are unavoidable, and that the extent of flight restrictions will depend on cooperation for behind-the-scenes work among air safety regulators, telecom companies and engineers for the aerospace engineers.

The FAA is worried that new cell signals could mess with some of the important cockpit safety systems, although wireless executives say that is unlikely to happen.

The ultimate goal of the work will be to make buffer zones around some airports to meet the FAA concerns for safety, and also let cellphone providers debut quicker service for customers.

“We felt that it was the right thing to do for the flying public, which includes our customers and all of us, to give the FAA a little time to work out its issues with the aviation community and therefore avoid further inconveniencing passengers with additional flight delays,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg wrote Tuesday in an email to employees.

PYMNTS writes that President Joe Biden has praised the deal between AT&T and Verizon, which will let new 5G wireless networks flourish. This, he said, would prevent an air traffic safety emergency.

See also: Biden Praises AT&T, Verizon 5G Deal

The Biden administration had pressured the delay of the 5G rollouts. Now, Biden says “there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on Jan. 19.”