AT&T, Verizon Push Back Over 5G Rollout

The CEOs of AT&T and Verizon have both rejected calls to delay their new 5G wireless rollouts scheduled for Wednesday (Jan. 5) over aviation concerns, Reuters reported. Instead, both have offered to put in new safeguards for the time being.

Despite warnings from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Steve Dickson, the wireless companies said they would only delay launches around airports for around six months, according to the report.

The CEOs said they wouldn’t do any bigger limitations on the C-Band spectrums. They said the proposal from the Department of Transportation would be too damaging and would erode the “operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks,” the report stated.

The FAA, in a statement Sunday (Jan. 2), said it is looking into the latest recommendations on how to cut down on interference from 5G C-band transmissions. It said U.S. aviation safety standards would inform further actions, according to the report.

The carriers have said the exclusion zone they want is already being used in France, the report stated.

“The laws of physics are the same in the United States and France,” the CEOs wrote in a joint letter, per the report. “If U.S. airlines are permitted to operate flights every day in France, then the same operating conditions should allow them to do so in the United States.”

The FAA said France uses spectrum for 5G that’s further away from the kind used for radio altimeters in the U.S., according to the report. And the power levels are lower for 5G in France.

The FAA and the aviation industry have been on opposite sides of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the issue, with one of the main problems being the spectrum for 5G use, which is also one of the technologies used to allow for new connected economy use cases.

Read more: Aviation Industry Emerges as Unexpected Obstacle in Path of 5G Rollout