AT&T, Verizon Reject Request To Delay 5G Mobile Service

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. rejected a U.S. request to delay this week’s launch of a new variation of 5G mobile service that airlines said might interfere with aircraft electronics, posing a safety hazard.

But the CEOs of the two telecommunications giants also said in a joint letter Sunday that they would be willing to commit to a six-month pause in deployment near certain airports that will be selected in negotiations with U.S. officials and the aviation industry, reports Bloomberg.

The U.S. request seeks steps that would be “to the detriment to our millions of consumer, business and government customers,” Verizon Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg and AT&T’s John Stankey wrote to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Steve Dickson, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

In a letter Friday, the U.S. officials asked the wireless providers to delay the planned Jan. 5 start of the new service. The officials forecast possible “widespread and unacceptable disruption” to air traffic as planes avoid airports bathed in 5G signals that could affect electronics used during landings.

“Your proposed framework asks that we agree to transfer oversight of our companies’ multi-billion dollar investment in 50 unnamed metropolitan areas representing the lion’s share of the U.S. population to the FAA for an undetermined number of months or years,” Vestberg and Stankey wrote. “Even worse, the proposal is directed to only two companies.”

The wireless executives said agreeing to the proposal would be “an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks.”

The new 5G signals would use a set of airwaves made freshly available to mobile communications providers. The frequencies are near those used by altitude-sensing radar altimeters. Aviation interests have said that creates a chance of interference that could leave some landings unsafe.

The wireless industry said power levels are low enough to preclude interference, and the gap between frequencies is sufficiently large to ensure safety.

Earlier AT&T and Verizon agreed to reduce power of their 5G signals and to put in place a 30-day delay, moving the service’s start from December to Jan. 5.

The AT&T and Verizon executives in Sunday’s letter said that if aviation interests don’t escalate their campaign against the new signals, they would commit to not deploying towers near certain airports for six months. The offer is modeled after exclusion zones at airports in France, where 5G service is working on the frequencies in question and U.S. airliners have landed.