Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Verizon and AT&T, among the leading United States telecommunication giants, have issued separate statements saying that they will limit the rollout of their latest 5G technologies in order to avert what airlines and logistics services CEOs in the country warned could be “catastrophic” disruptions.
“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,” AT&T stated today Tuesday January 18, 2022.
Verizon noted: “We have voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 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 other countries.”
Verizon will, from its news release, activate most of its 5G launch as scheduled on Wednesday, to “enable more than 90 million Americans to experience the transformative speed,” while the 5G interference “operational” issues with avionics are being resolved.
AT&T said it 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.”
“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…. We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.”
Meanwhile, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has assured Americans that the “Next-generation 5G technologies will be the backbone of our economic future…. Today’s agreement makes it possible to bring this technology to millions more consumers and businesses throughout the country starting tomorrow using the C-band. This is welcome news because 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. 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.”
