UPDATE AT&T and Verizon launched their 5G operations on C-band early Wednesday, albeit by temporarily leaving some towers near certain large airports out of their networks. There’s been a lot of finger-pointing since the last-minute agreement Tuesday between the carriers and the FAA to give the agency more time to study the potential interference implications of 5G on radio altimeters.
AT&T said it’s “frustrated by the FAA’s inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done” in balancing 5G and aviation safety, Inside Towers reported. House Transportation Chair Pete DeFazio (D-OR) disputed that characterization on CNN, instead blaming the Trump-era FCC for holding an FCC spectrum auction despite aviation concerns, reported Politico. He also blamed the wireless industry for not providing deployment data sooner. DeFazio said he spoke with the head of United Airlines on Tuesday, warning of the airline’s cancellation of overseas flights into the U.S. over 5G safety concerns. Other airlines also cancelled their flights into the U.S. over the same interference concerns to certain radio altimeters, Inside Towers reported.
Ajit Pai, the FCC chair under former President Donald Trump, has defended the agency’s analysis several times that dismissed the safety concerns, Inside Towers noted.
The latest high-profile spectrum turf war continues a Trump-era trend, even as the Biden administration seeks to end its predecessor’s interagency chaos, according to Politico. Republican committee leaders in the House pointed to what they called the current White House’s lack of leadership to find a solution, saying it “sleepwalked through this botched process.”
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH), and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) and Aviation Subcommittee Ranking Member Garret Graves (R-LA) stated: “By lurching from one arbitrary deadline to the next with no clear plan or strategy for resolution, this administration’s negligence continues to delay finding a lasting solution that improves our everyday wireless communication while protecting aviation safety.”
GOP Commissioner Brendan Carr agreed, asserting the White House should have “sided with the science” of earlier FCC safety assurances. He pointed out that nearly two years ago the agency authorized wireless use of C-band, and the FCC’s rules “safeguard aeronautical services from any harmful interference. Starting late last year, the Biden administration chose to upend that settled decision and replace it with a chaotic and haphazard process.”
CTIA, meanwhile, which represents wireless carriers, just wants it fixed. “It’s too important to have a trustworthy, credible spectrum process that gets this spectrum out there,” CTIA General Counsel Tom Power told Politico. Policymakers “need to empower the experts to do their jobs.”
Asked about his administration’s performance with respect to the 5G rollout this week at his press conference late Wednesday, President Joe Biden said: “You had two private enterprises, one holding 5G and the other – airlines. What I’ve done is pushed as hard as I can to have the 5G folks hold up, which was requested by the airlines, so any tower within a certain number of miles to an airport should not be operating. Anything as consequential [as that] should be viewed as government responsibility, I get that.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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