The two companies that hope to use a swath of radio spectrum to launch the next generation of wireless phone technology starting Wednesday said they’ll delay its deployment around some airports to ensure aviation safety.
AT&T, which along with Verizon last year bought a swath of spectrum for more than $80 billion, said in a statement early Tuesday it will “temporarily defer” turning on some of the towers that they had planned to use to deploy 5G in order to ensure that they don’t interfere with aircraft radar altimeters, which help planes navigate in low-visibility situations.
Verizon followed suit hours later, saying it would “voluntarily” limit its 5G network around airports.
The companies have already twice delayed 5G deployment after outcry from the aviation industry, which has warned that interference could at best disrupt aircraft and at worst pose a risk to the flying public.
Tensions remain. AT&T, clearly frustrated with the delay, said that the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration have had two years “to responsibly plan for this deployment.” The company noted that 40 countries have been able to deploy 5G technology near airports without disrupting aviation.
Verizon expressed similar frustrations.
“The Federal Aviation Administration and our nation’s airlines have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 countries,” a Verizon spokesman said.
Still, the company said it plans to deploy 5G.
“Americans have been clamoring for 5G and tomorrow we will deliver it,” the spokesman said.
The telecommunications companies’ decisions came after the heads of major airlines warned of a “catastrophic disruption” if AT&T and Verizon deploy the new technology as scheduled on Wednesday.
“Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies,” the CEOs of major airlines wrote to the head of the Federal Communications Commission, the FAA, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Brian Deese, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council.
Airlines asked the federal government to implement 5G “everywhere in the country except within the approximately 2 miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA on January 19, 2022.” Doing so, they wrote, would allow 5G to be deployed while avoiding delays in travel and the supply chain.
The airlines’ letter came even as the FAA announced it had cleared some 45 percent of the U.S. commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at many of the airports where the 5G will be deployed Wednesday.
Specifically, the FAA approved two radio altimeter models that are installed in many Boeing and Airbus aircraft, opening up runways at some 48 of the 88 airports that would be affected by 5G interference.
Some delays
Still, the FAA cautioned that even with those approvals “flights at some airports may still be affected.”
Verizon and AT&T purchased the bandwidth in February 2021 in the 3.7-3.98 GHz range for about $80 billion. Altimeters generally operate on the 4.2-4.4 GHz range of the C-Band, and the FAA is concerned enough about the potential for interference that in December it warned that it may have to ground aircraft during certain conditions in order to ensure safe flights.
T-Mobile, which also offers 5G services, does not operate in that band.
President Joe Biden thanked the wireless companies for agreeing to the delay.
“This agreement will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and our economic recovery, while allowing more than 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled,” Biden said.
Airlines successfully delayed a scheduled Jan. 6 deployment in order to give the FAA time to determine how best to proceed. But airlines warned in their letter that “the harm that will result from deployment on Jan. 19 is substantially worse than we originally anticipated.”
First, they wrote, the 50 large airports that the FAA has picked for relief will still be subject to flight restrictions on Wednesday, meaning, “unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded.” Such restrictions could mean more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays during a single day.
The airline heads also said that the restrictions “will not be limited to poor weather operations.” Though altimeters will be among the devices impacted by deployment, they wrote, “multiple modern safety systems on aircraft will be deemed unusable causing a much larger problem than what we knew on January 5, 2022.”
“Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swaths of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded,” they wrote, including flights coming in from overseas.
Should nothing change, they warned, “every one of the passenger and cargo carriers will be struggling to get people, shipments, planes and crews where they need to be.
“To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt.”
In a memo to employees Tuesday, American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour warned that the deployment of 5G would create “an unprecedented challenge” for the airline, predicting “major operational disruptions.”
“To be very clear, we’re incredibly disappointed that we are at this point, that the entire U.S. airline industry is facing major disruption as new wireless technology is activated,” he wrote. “The two should be able to coexist, but that only comes with better understanding of potential impacts.”
The telecommunications industry argues that some 40 countries have deployed this technology and the aviation industry should’ve expressed its specific concerns far sooner.
Greg Guice, director of government affairs at Public Knowledge, which advocates for an open internet, said airlines and the FAA failed to coordinate sooner with the FCC.
He said the issue is one of altimeters, not the network, and pointed to other countries’ deployment as proof that it can be done.
“Because someone is saying, literally, ‘planes will fall out of the sky,’ it kind of raises the bar,’” he said. “Whether there’s merit to the statement or not, it raises the bar.”
He said the manufacturer of altimeters should step in to solve the problem.
“An entire wireless network shouldn’t be held up because one manufacturer decided to go the cheap route,” he said.
Airlines have been joined by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter A. DeFazio, D-Oregon, and Aviation Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen, D-Washington, as well as flight attendant and pilot unions in urging a delay.
“The bottom line is simple: we must provide the FAA and aviation industry with more time to thoroughly assess the risks of deployment in order to avoid potentially disastrous disruptions to our national airspace system,” DeFazio said. “We can’t roll the dice with the safety of our economy and the traveling public.”
Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, meanwhile, warned that airlines are “on the verge of significant operational disruptions.”
“We urge @usdot to delay implementation of #5G,” he tweeted.
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