AT&T, Verizon Agree to Slightly Modified 5G Rollout

In an effort to finally roll out 5G service in the C-band spectrum it paid billions of dollars for while accommodating concerns about interference to aircraft safety systems, AT&T has agreed to take further, temporary precautions as it rolls out the service January 19. Verizon is also reportedly doing the same.

At our sole discretion we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the [Federal Aviation Administration] to provide further information about our 5G deployment, since they have not utilized the two years they've had to responsibly plan for this deployment, said AT&T, clearly unhappy with the continuing push for delays by the airline industry.

The most recent was a letter from airline CEOs saying there would be chaos if wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon did not delay activating some towers near airports.

AT&T and Verizon have already delayed their rollouts from December to earlier this month (January 5), then again to January 20 as they got pushback from the FAA and the airlines, who want buffer zones around many airports at a minimum.

Altimeters use spectrum adjacent to the C-band spectrum. The FCC concluded that both could co-exist, but has since signaled there might need to be more guardrails.

We are frustrated by the FAA's inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner, an AT&T spokesperson said. We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.

A Verizon spokesperson was unavailable at press time to comment on its next steps toward the January 19 rollout but the Times was reporting that Verizon, too, would limit the rollout on select towers near airports.

LINK:	https://www.nexttv.com/news/atandt-agrees-to-slightly-modified-5g-roll...
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