Verizon, AT&T to Delay Some 5G Rollouts Near Airports

The 5G wireless saga continues.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T on Friday agreed to delay some of its rollout of 5G service near certain airports as airlines continued to express concern that the high-tech update will interfere with planes’ communication systems.

Federal Aviation Administration acting administrator Billy Nolen said the two telecommunications giants agreed to delay some of the implementation of the service until July of 2023.

“We believe we have identified a path that will continue to enable aviation and 5G C-band wireless to safely co-exist,” Nolen told the Associated Press.

But airlines and airline trade groups still insist that the service could disrupt airplane radio altimeters, which are used to measure a plane’s height above the ground during landing, especially when visibility is low due to poor weather conditions.

But some planes still need to update those altimeters, which in some cases might not be until July of 2023.

Airlines for America CEO Nicholas Calio, who heads the main lobby group for the major airlines, said that’s a problem.

“It is not at all clear that carriers can meet what appears to be an arbitrary deadline,” he said in a letter to Nolen.

But Verizon and AT&T, which spent $68 billion on the new service, are likely not willing to wait much longer than next summer, not when this saga has played out between the telecoms and aviation for going on two years now.

The two companies said they would take a measured approach to the rest of the rollout of the service that began earlier this year.