Verizon and AT&T’s FAA deal expands C-band 5G, with restrictions until July 2023 - The Verge

After months of delays, the FAA has made a deal with cellular carriers on how to move forward with rolling out C-band 5G. The agreement is meant to keep airplanes safe.

The Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, says it expects AT&T and Verizon to be able to more or less fully roll out their 5G C-band networks by July 2023, after multiple delays due to concerns about the radio waves affecting vital safety equipment on planes. The plan, which the FAA says is the result of collaboration between regulators, carriers, and the aviation industry, will allow carriers to turn on their equipment in “carefully considered phases” as airlines work to retrofit their planes with equipment that will mitigate any potential interference from cellular signals.

As AT&T and Verizon were turning on their next-gen networks in January, the FAA protested and the carriers agreed to create buffer zones around dozens of airports in the US. The agreement was only meant to extend until July 2022. But at the time, it wasn’t clear how the problem would be resolved by then. Now, the carriers have agreed to keep limiting their C-band in certain areas for another year.

In a statement to The Verge, Verizon chief administrative officer Craig Silliman said:

Under this agreement reached with the FAA, we will lift the voluntary limitations on our 5G network deployment around airports in a staged approach over the coming months meaning even more consumers and businesses will benefit from the tremendous capabilities of 5G technology.

AT&T spokesperson Alex Byers said:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/17/23172731/verizon-att-c-band-5g-rollout-faa-deal-airports-plan

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