The CEOs of AT&T and Verizon have rejected a request from the FAA and Transportation Department to stall their C-band service rollouts for another two weeks beyond the scheduled date of January 5.
AT&T’s Chief Executive Officer John Stankey and Verizon’s Hans Vestberg have issued a joint letter, arguing that the government’s proposed plan would effectively give oversight of the network expansions to the FAA for an “undetermined number of months or years”, and wouldn’t cover rivals like T-Mobile.
The move would represent an “irresponsible abdication” of network control, the CEOs said, adding that honouring the request would be to the “detriment of our millions of consumer, business and government customers”.
However, AT&T and Verizon promised not to deploy C-band 5G towers near some airports for six months, but only so long as the aviation industry and regulators didn’t do more to halt C-band deployments. These airports that will be selected in negotiations with U.S. officials and the aviation industry.
The two CEOs wrote: “Your proposed framework asks that we agree to transfer oversight of our companies’ multi-billion-dollar investment in 50 unnamed metropolitan areas representing the lion’s share of the US population to the FAA for an undetermined number of months or years. Even worse, the proposal is directed to only two companies.”
The new C-band service signals would use a set of airwaves made freshly available to mobile communications providers. It promises to deliver more of the speed advantages of 5G without the short range and poor indoor service of millimeter wave technology. The frequencies are near those used by altitude-sensing radar altimeters.
The aviation industry said that creates a chance of interference that could leave some landings unsafe. The wireless industry said power levels are low enough to preclude interference, and the gap between frequencies is sufficiently large to ensure safety.
The CEOs added that they are “committed to continue” cooperation with transportation interests “on the condition that the FAA and the aviation industry are committed to doing the same without escalating their grievances, unfounded as they are, in other venues.”
In an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg, FAA said it is reviewing the response along with DoT officials and “US aviation safety standards will guide our next actions”.
