AT&T, Verizon Turning on C Band, Not Near Some Big Airports

AT&T and Verizon plan to start turning on their C-band operations Wednesday, despite a push by major airlines to delay the start. Both said Tuesday they will defer the launch around some airports and expressed frustration with the FAA.

“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 FAA 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,” an AT&T spokesperson emailed: “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.” AT&T plans to launch in other locations “with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.”

Verizon will “temporarily limit deployment near certain airports,” the carrier said in a statement. “Americans have been clamoring for 5G and tomorrow we will deliver it,” Verizon said: The FAA and the airlines “have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries.

The chief executives of American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United and other major air carriers issued a warning in a letter Monday. “Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” they wrote. FedEx Express, Alaska Air and Hawaiian Airlines were among others on the letter. They said on a day like Sunday “more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays.”

“Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swaths of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded,” the letter said: “In addition to the chaos caused domestically, this lack of usable widebody aircraft could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas.”

The FAA cleared some 45% of the U.S. commercial airliner fleet “to perform low-visibility landings at many of the airports where 5G C-band will be deployed on Jan. 19.” The FAA said it approved two radio altimeter models installed in a wide variety of Boeing and Airbus planes. “This combination of aircraft and altimeter approval opens up runways at as many as 48 of the 88 airports most directly affected by 5G C-band interference,” the FAA said.

"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," President Joe Biden said Tuesday. It "protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to millions of Americans." Biden's "team has been engaging non-stop with the wireless carriers, airlines, and aviation equipment manufacturers to chart a path forward for 5G deployment and aviation to safely co-exist," he said. At "my direction, they will continue to do so until we close the remaining gap and reach a permanent, workable solution around these key airports."

“We know that deployment can safely co-exist with aviation technologies in the United States, just as it does in other countries around the world,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday: “The FAA has a process in place to assess altimeter performance in the 5G environment and resolve any remaining concerns. It is essential that the FAA now complete this process with both care and speed.”

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., told us earlier this month he doesn’t believe commercial C-band use “has the impact on aviation safety that the FAA is maintaining.” The FAA and FCC “have to figure this out,” he said.“The FCC felt like they had addressed all the issues” before, but “at least it looks like they’re trying to accommodate and work through whatever those issues are. The companies and the agencies have to get this sorted out and get a plan to move forward.”

“It is clear that the previous administration’s directive undertaken by the FCC helped pad the pockets of the telecom industry at the expense of aviation safety,” House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., tweeted Tuesday. “We cannot allow profits to come before the traveling public. Not now, not ever.” DeFazio and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said Monday they back airlines' call for the FAA to limit C-band deployments near runways at affected U.S. airports.

“For the first time, the wireless companies are obeying the instructions of the FAA, rather than the FCC, which is their regulator,” emailed Diana Furchtgott-Roth, adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University: “This sets a huge precedent.”

Meanwhile, an analysis of 3.45 GHz, a second swath of mid-band spectrum for 5G, found Verizon never bid in that auction. The FCC released results Friday (see 2201140065).

“Verizon did even less than what I predicted they would do at the start of the auction,” wrote Sasha Javid, BitPath chief operating officer: “They did not show up from the beginning. … That kills the theory that Verizon tried to kill the auction in Round 10 by dropping out.” Instead, Cherry Wireless, a bidder backed by private equity and Edward Moise, was the entity that appeared to exit, he said. “It is clear from Cherry's bidding that they tried to drop out in Round 10 and then appear to have changed course after not being able to drop out completely due to the auction format,” he said.

Dish Network “once again came to the FCC's rescue spending big in this auction,” more than $7.3 billion, Javid wrote: “That is a big number and far more than I (or anyone) predicted. This gets them a little over an average 3 blocks nationwide.” T-Mobile focused on the largest markets, similar to what it did in the C band, he said.

A new paper by 5G Americas highlights the role the C band will play in 5G. 5G is taking off with 100,000 small cells deployed in the U.S. and more than 1,000 devices now available, the group said: “By supporting new application types and flexible spectrum use, including frequencies never before used in cellular systems, 5G provides a communications foundation for a future world -- one of extended reality, autonomous cars, smart cities, wearable computers, and innovations not yet conceived.”