The top executives at Verizon Communications
The companies were asked to delay by the aviation industry as a whole, as well as U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Steve Dickson. The officials were requesting that AT&T CEO John Stankey and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg hold off on the 5G rollout for no more than 2 weeks.
While the wireless rollout plan is scheduled to move forward, the companies did agree to delay the installation of 5G around airports for six months in a joint letter. The letter argued that delaying the rollout for two weeks or less would be "an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks."
FAA officials have raised concerns regarding the safety of that "world-class" network. Insiders say the 5G wireless signal could interfere with sensitive electronics on planes like the systems that judge how high a plane is above the ground.
A similar restricted 5G rollout is currently underway in France, and the tech companies argue that if 5G is safe for American pilots landing in France, then it should be safe for American pilots landing in the U.S.
"The laws of physics are the same in the United States and France," the joint letter reads. "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."
In response, the FAA said that it would be "reviewing the latest letter from the wireless companies on how to mitigate interference from 5G C-band transmissions. U.S. aviation safety standards will guide our next actions."
According to aviation experts, the 5G network in place in France isn't the same as the one proposed for the U.S. The FAA states that the 5G spectrum used in France is farther from the range of the spectrum used by plane electronics. The system also reportedly uses less power than the 5G network planned for the U.S.
However, Verizon said that it will be sticking to that more restricted range of the spectrum for at least the next few years. The company also said that the exclusion zone around airports will be larger in the U.S. to account for "the slight difference in power levels between the two nations." The zone is still not as large as the one requested by the FAA.
Worker advocates like Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), say that the cell companies "have no incentive to delay 5G" other than safety concerns. Meanwhile, airline trade groups are arguing that the deployment of 5G could disrupt thousands of flights every day.
A trade group representing American Airlines
Trade groups representing cell companies, on the other hand, say that 5G is totally safe, pointing to the presence of 5G networks in 40 countries around the globe.
