Announced Friday, The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it has agreed that Verizon Wireless and AT&T can safely turn on additional towers for their C-Band 5G deployment.
“Through continued technical collaboration, the FAA, Verizon, and AT&T have agreed on steps that will enable more aircraft to safely use key airports while also enabling more towers to deploy 5G service,” the FAA said in a statement. The FAA said more precise data about the exact location of wireless transmitters allowed it “to determine that it is possible to safely and more precisely map the size and shape of the areas around airports where 5G signals are mitigated, shrinking the areas where wireless operators are deferring their antenna activations.”
The FAA had imposed flight restrictions as a result of new 5G service possibly causing interference with aircraft altimeter tools (something pilots use to help land in inclement weather). Verizon and AT&T originally disputed the FAA’s warnings, but they twice agreed to delay launching new 5G. They also temporarily delayed it around 50 US airports even as they began offering the service in many U.S. cities on Jan. 19.
The FAA said that it took steps to reach this agreement after receiving details from the telecommunications companies about the location of wireless transmitters. The data helped it to better map areas around airports where the new high-speed 5G service won’t hinder the ability of planes to land during poor weather.
Now that the dispute has come to a head, the FAA has cleared most types of airline planes to operate around 5G signals, saying that their height-measuring devices, radio altimeters, are safe from radio interference.
