In the latest unfolding of the events regarding the deployment of the 5G towers near the airports, the federal safety regulator has apparently allowed AT&T and Verizon to activate more towers for new 5G services without causing radio interferences with the aeroplanes. The Federal Aviation Administration announced (FAA)on Friday that the decision was made after it received intel from the telecommunications company regarding the exact location of wireless transmitters. This will bring an end to the ongoing issue of installation of 5G towers and telecom operators will now be able to power up 5G towers close to the airport without affecting the aeroplanes’ landing during the poor weather.
What Has Been the Issue?
The US airlines and FAA have already talked about the safety concerns with the deployment of 5G services and how it could hinder radio altimeter readings needed for bad-weather landings on some jets. Previously, the 3.7 GHz – 3.8 GHz frequency bands were acquired by AT&T and Verizon after bidding tens of billions of dollars in the month of February of 2021. However, companies had postponed the deployment earlier in November when FAA issued a bulletin warning against the potential threat of 5G wireless service.
Following this, there was another delay on the activation of 5G towers as AT&T and Verizon came to the terms to postpone the deployment of 5G wireless services due to the lurking fears of 5G services causing hindrance to flight safety equipment and voluntarily agreed to a two weeks delay on the deployment of their C-Band 5G services until January 19. However, until now FAA has given clearance to more than 90% of the flights of the US fleet to fly near the 5G signals stating that their radio altimeters were safe from any harm.
As reported earlier, a big number of flights from Asia, the Middle East, and Europe to the United States remained cancelled or switched planes at the zero-hour last week as well as a few domestic flights. Moreover, the clearance allowed by the FAA excludes some of the smaller aeroplanes including a few Embraer regional jets. The president of the Regional Airline Association, Faye Malarkey Black said in a statement that the issue is not entirely fixed as the regional airlines which operate under contract with major airlines have faced a lot of restrictions on their flights during the poor weather.
