Wireless companies agree to additional 5G curbs in bid to avert flight chaos

Verizon and AT&T reached an 11th-hour compromise that would clear the way for a nationwide launch of new 5G wireless service on Wednesday — without triggering the “catastrophic” flight cancellations that the airline industry has warned would ensue.

The two wireless giants said Tuesday that they had voluntarily agreed to postpone the debut of the 5G service near some airports, amid concerns that the signals might confuse some kinds of aircraft safety equipment. Airlines for America, the trade group for U.S. airlines, said that while it has yet to see the details of the agreement, the industry appreciates that it provides “the opportunity to ensure all stakeholders, consumers and the U.S. economy are served in the long run.”

Tuesday marks the second time in two weeks that the wireless industry has agreed to measures to ease the launch of new 5G services, which has also provoked a public divide between President Joe Biden’s appointees at the Department of Transportation and the Federal Communications Commission.

But it leaves unresolved the major stumbling blocks plaguing the United States’ attempts to launch its generation of fast wireless service — a realm in which the U.S. risks falling behind global rivals like China.

The deal also doesn’t entirely rule out the possibility of airlines canceling enough flights this week to disrupt the already stuttering U.S. economy. On Tuesday afternoon, a handful of foreign airlines canceled some of their flights to the U.S., on fears that their airplanes and crew could be stranded here until the uncertainty cleared.

Biden praised the deal nonetheless Tuesday, saying it would allow “more than 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled.”

“Expanding 5G and promoting competition in internet service are critical priorities of mine, and tomorrow will be a massive step in the right direction,” he added. “My team has been engaging non-stop with the wireless carriers, airlines, and aviation equipment manufacturers to chart a path forward for 5G deployment and aviation to safely co-exist.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg applauded the agreements as the companies' commitment “to protect the flying public and the country’s supply chain.”

However, retiring Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chair of the House Transportation Committee, was far less sanguine, saying he “wouldn't plan on flying anywhere tomorrow.”

In recent years, FCC approvals of telecom industry wireless plans have drawn ire from airlines, automakers and even the Pentagon, all of which complained that the decisions could disrupt or intrude on airwaves they depend on. The most recent 5G flap involves a Trump-era FCC auction in which Verizon and AT&T agreed to pay $80 billion for a swath of spectrum that can transmit data up to 100 times faster than standard 4G service.

Those kinds of speeds can enable the spread of technologies such as telemedicine and internet-connected cars. But airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration say 5G has the potential to interfere with the instruments that measure planes’ altitude, potentially making it dangerous for aircraft to land in poor weather. And the airlines had warned Biden’s appointees Monday that they would have no choice but to ground thousands of passenger and cargo flights if Wednesday’s launch went ahead with no changes.

AT&T lashed back at the airlines and the FAA on Tuesday, saying they had failed to use the last “two years they’ve had to responsibly plan for this deployment.” AT&T and Verizon have previously dismissed the airlines’ warnings as overblown and pointed to other countries where 5G and aviation services coexist.

“We are frustrated by the FAA’s inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it to do so in a timely manner,” a spokesperson for the company said, reiterating that the tech will activate tomorrow “with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.”

However, aviation groups like the Air Line Pilots Association, the union for pilots, have dismissed such comparisons, saying other countries' broadcast strength is significantly less than what is proposed in the U.S., and that in some cases siting and other mitigations are significantly different in other countries.

In a statement, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said she is confident that 5G and aviation can safely coexist. “The FAA has a process in place to assess altimeter performance in the 5G environment and resolve any remaining concerns. It is essential that the FAA now complete this process with both care and speed.”

Airlines and airports have warned in increasingly dire language that absent further buffers, the 5G rollout would force chaos in the skies and bring commerce to its knees, with untold numbers of flights canceled and diverted to other airports outside the 5G service zones. Neither the FAA nor AT&T and Verizon would provide a list of which airports the new deal encompasses, but the agency has put together an index of 50 airports in the 5G service area where interference will be mitigated with added “buffer zones.”

United Airlines, for example, said it estimates about 1.25 million of its passengers, and “at least 15,000 flights and much-needed goods and tons of cargo traveling through more than 40 of the largest airports in the country,” are likely to see negative impacts annually under the current 5G plans.

The airline industry on Monday first requested that the Biden administration block any wireless transmission within a two-mile radius of airport runways. The latest proposal that the companies agreed to would allow roughly 90 percent of the wireless tower deployment overseen by AT&T and Verizon to begin Wednesday.

“With safety as its core mission, the FAA will continue to ensure that the traveling public is safe as wireless companies deploy 5G,” the agency said Monday in response to the airlines’ collective plea, signed off by Airlines for America. The FAA’s work continues even as the 5G services roll out on Wednesday, the agency said.

The FAA expects to issue additional directives in the coming days, including alternative ways to ensure safety measures are met in the event that pilots and crew can’t land despite the mitigations currently planned. In December, DOT, AT&T and Verizon agreed to still employ additional protections in certain airport zones over the next six months.

Alex Ward and John Hendel contributed to this report.