President Joe Biden on Tuesday (January 4) praised stakeholders — including FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel — for the agreement by AT&T and Verizon Communications to delay their rollout of 5G wireless service in the C-band spectrum from January 5 to January 19. 

But he also suggested there could still be some air traffic disruptions when 5G does launch in that slice of bandwidth. Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, had requested the extra two weeks.

That two-week extension will also give the FCC more time to weigh in on the aviation industry petition to stay its two-year-old decision to allow 5G in the C-Band, though FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's reaction suggested that stay would no longer be necessary. 

“Last night’s agreement provides the framework and the certainty needed to achieve our shared goal of deploying 5G swiftly while ensuring air safety," she said. "It was made possible by the FCC, DOT, FAA, the wireless companies, and the aviation industry working together to share data, bring together technical experts, and collaborate in good faith to ensure the coexistence of wireless and aviation technologies.” 

The wireless companies — the top two bidders in the C-band spectrum auction — had already delayed the rollout from December over concerns by the Federal Aviation Administration and the airline industry that 5G uses could interfere with critical aviation systems in the adjacent band.

Also: Aviation Groups Try to Block 5G in C-Band

AT&T and Verizon had initially signaled there would be no further delay, but both agreed late Tuesday to a two-week extension.

"My administration is committed to rapid 5G deployment, while minimizing disruptions to air operations and continuing to maintain the world’s safest airspace," Biden said in a statement. The president said all involved were working toward the safe co-existence of 5G and aviation systems — specifically altimeters that tell a plane its orientation to the ground — but he signaled they might not be all the way there when 5G launches.

“This agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks, and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19,” he said.

Already experiencing COVID-19-related — and later weather-related — cancellations, the airline industry had painted a doomsday scenario for January 5. Airlines said the launch of 5G in the C-band could cost the industry $1 billion and delay shipments of COVID-19 vaccines and tests.

The FCC voted unanimously to open the C-band to 5G and said its engineers had determined the two uses could safely co-exist.

The president's full statement is below:

"My Administration is committed to rapid 5G deployment, while minimizing disruptions to air operations and continuing to maintain the world’s safest airspace. Last night’s agreement is a significant step in the right direction, and we’re grateful to all parties for their cooperation and good faith. This agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19th. 

 "For the last few months, my Administration has been convening technical experts at the FAA, the FCC, and from the wireless and aviation industries to discuss a solution that allows the expansion of 5G and aviation to safely co-exist, and I am pleased those efforts helped produce yesterday’s agreement.  I want to thank Secretary Buttigieg, FAA Administrator Dickson, and FCC Chair Rosenworcel, as well as AT&T and Verizon and airline industry leaders, for their tireless work to ensure that the expansion of 5G and aviation can safely co-exist."  ■

Airline pilots have joined their airline bosses in asking the Federal Communications Commission to stay its decision to allow a rollout of 5G wireless in the C-band spectrum adjacent to the bandwidth used for critical aviation devices.

In a January 2 filing with the FCC, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) said that wireless operations could interfere with the radio altimeters they use to determine a plane's height-above-terrain. And because there is no other sources of that info, the interference may not be detectable and shut could provide “hazardously misleading” information to flight crews.

AT&T and Verizon Communications have said they would roll out their service January 5 despite Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg‘s call for a delay. They have already delayed that rollout from December 5 due to concerns about interference to altimeters.

AT&T and Verizon were the big winners in the FCC's C-band spectrum auction.

The airline industry filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking the agency to stop implementation of rules for the rollout of 5G in the band and suggesting not doing so would cost he airline industry $1 billion and delay shipments of COVID-19 vaccines and tests.

The airlines wanted a decision by Monday (January 3).

In a hearing on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's nomination Thursday (Jan. 21), the former South Bend mayor pledged to support the "dig once" policies that help drive broadband adoption.

Asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) about her "dig once" legislative efforts to coordinate the deployment of broadband and road building and improvements, Buttigieg said that one of the reasons his home state of Indiana had "phenomenal connectivity" because people remembered to lay conduit along highways and railways. He said that even if the effort were driven by another department, DOT would be open to supporting dig once.

Also Read: Communications Industry Extends Congratulations to President Biden

Committee chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) presided  over the hearing because a power-sharing agreement has yet to be struck between the Senate majority and minority leader, but he signaled that there could be a symbolic passing of the gavel to new chair and current ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

If that Buttigieg hearing was any indication, there is some hope for greater comity in the new Congress. 

Wicker said he was "absolutely delighted" that the first nominee the committee was vetting was Buttigieg, who he said would bring a valuable perspective to the post and who he said would definitely be confirmed. Buttigieg was introduced by Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who called Buttigieg a professional friend and colleague and someone for whom he had a great deal of respect. 

Cantwell talked about the "great, collegial working relationship" she had, and expected to continue to have, and to grow in this Congress, with Wicker. For his part, Wicker thanked Cantwell for her cooperation in the past and said he was committed to working in a bipartisan manner. 

The newly evenly split Senate Commerce Committee has also scheduled a hearing for Jan. 27 to come up with the rules governing the committee, a traditional effort given new emphasis since Senate is split 50-50, with Democrats controlling due to Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote and a pandemic that has caused hearings to be hybrid in person/virtual proceedings.

The rules include time and place of hearings, notice of those hearings, requirements for testimony, composition of subcommittees, budget approval, and much more.

Broadcast nets planning special reports on the Iowa Caucus results got to stick with regular programming and cable outlets providing wall-to-wall coverage were having to scramble for snippets of info and vamp as Caucus organizers appeared to be having major problems with tabulating the results of the first Democratic preference poll of the presidential race. 

According to multiple nets, the Iowa Democratic Party said it was still doing quality control hours into a process where the rules of the caucus had changed and new data sets were supposed to be released for the first time. 

CNN was reporting that there appeared to be issues with a new app being used to record precinct results, as well as a backup hotline to call in the results. 

The party said it was validating inconsistencies in reporting of three sets of data and that the app had not been hacked or failed.

But while a precinct captain in Story County was on the phone talking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about how he had been on hold for an hour trying to call in his results after the app did not work when he suddenly got through, but before he could stop talking to CNN and answer the voice on the other end, they hung up. 

Wolf Blitzer lamented to John King at about 12:20 a.m.: "We should be at the "magic wall," where King tracks the candidates' performance at ground level, "instead we got nothing."

Candidates were waiting to speak to their supporters when the results came in, then head to New Hampshire. At press time, Fox News was reporting that candidate Amy Klobuchar was going to speak anyway as the delay continued. 

She took the opportunity to thank her supporters, and said that while she does not know the results, she knows her campaign "is punching above our weight." She said she was heading overnight to New Hampshire, suggesting she was not waiting around for the final tally. 

Klobuchar's move appeared to be a good one, drawing live coverage on CNN, Fox and MSNBC, all looking for news to report out of a caucus without any other than the delay.

Fox's Juan Williams, a Democrat, called that reporting delay in this day and age "unbelievable." 

"Democracy in action in Iowa," said one WJLA-TV Washington local news anchor of the caucus in a story on the 11 p.m. news,  with 0% of precincts reporting--compared to 90% that reported at the same time four years ago--but it appeared to be more like "democracy inaction." 

At about half past the hour ET, candidate Joe Biden followed Klobuchar's lead to thank his supporters. He said the party was working to get the results straight and he would get his share of delegates, whatever that was, and in the meantime it was "on to New Hampshire."

Bernie Sanders followed suit about 15 minutes later, with Mayor Pete Buttigieg queued up behind him to get airtime. Sanders said he had a strong feeling that, eventually, the results would be announced and at that time he would do very well. He said the message that Iowa had sent the nation, which it had actually not yet sent, was that they wanted a candidate that represented all of them, not just the rich 1%.

Amidst cheerleader-like chants from wildly enthusiastic supporters, Buttigieg spoke as though there were some definitive answers out of Iowa, and that he would be the winner: "What a night," he said. "Tonight an improbable hope became an undeniable reality." He said that by the time all was said and done, Iowa will have "shocked the nation." By all indications he said would be going on to New Hampshire 'victorious." He thanked his competitors for a hard-fought race, but said Iowa had chosen "a new path."

CNN and MSNBC carrier his "victory" speech, while Fox went with pundit commentary about the delay instead. 

According to Fox and CNN, the campaign of Joe Biden, which did not look to be doing particularly well according to news reporting--rather than results reporting--wrote a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party expressing its displeasure with the delay and saying it wanted a chance to review the results when they were eventually tabulated, and before they were released.

Fox's Chris Wallace said he would take the "over" in betting on when the results would be released, speculating that the other campaigns would also want such an accounting before the results were released.

And elsewhere on the political wagering front, looking to capitalize on the delay, Predictit, which runs an online trading site for small dollar "trades" on the potential outcomes of political events, was emailing the news that Buttigieg was surging in its market, while Sanders remained in the lead among its traders.

Celebrating the Iowa Democrats' problems was Donald Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, who tweeted:

[embed]https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1224549934575378434[/embed]

While Fox may be the overwhelming choice of Republicans, one Democratic presidential candidate is urging viewers to tune into the cable news network and again explaining why he chose to appear on the network. 

That is because Fox, which is the top-rated cable news net, will again be hosting a town hall Sunday (Jan. 26) with Pete Buttigieg in Des Moines, Iowa.

In emails to supporters with the subject line, "Why I'm going on Fox News," Buttigieg's campaign has been explaining why he is appearing on a network Democrats often dismiss as catering to Republicans. It will be the second Buttigieg appearance on a Fox-hosted event after a May town hall on the network and the second time the campaign felt the need to explain that appearance to reporters. 

Of that event back in May, Buttigieg said Democrats needed to move beyond the "echo chamber" of people who already agree with them.  

Buttigieg's first appearance came May 19, in the wake of presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren's decision to decline, very publicly and stingingly, Fox's invitation to appear on its air for a town hall. 

"We can’t play it safe. We can’t afford to write off voters," the new email reads. "Pete broke through with his CNN town hall last March, and even had Donald Trump attacking him after his Fox News town hall dominated the national conversation." 

The President turned critical of his favorite network after Fox gave Buttigieg the platform to talk with Fox viewers about his campaign and issues.  

"This is one of our last chances to communicate directly with the American people. I need you to watch the town hall, tell your friends, family, and neighbors about it," said Lis Smith, Buttigieg's high-profile campaign operative whose name was attached to the email. 

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg says that winning the presidential election and reclaiming Democratic values means reaching beyond the "echo chamber" of like-minded people to meet voters where they are.

In the wake of presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren's decision to decline very publicly and stingingly Fox's invitation to appear on its air for a town hall, fellow candidate Buttigieg sent an e-mail to supporters to explain why he is participating in a Fox town hall Sunday night (May 19) from Claremont, N.H.,  from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

Related: Warren Disses Fox Invite

"If we ignore the viewers of Fox News and every news platform that doesn’t share our worldview, we will surrender our ability to speak directly to millions of American voters," he said.

Buttigieg did not make it an us vs. Fox explanation, saying he strongly condemn[ed] the voices on Fox and in the media [emphasis ours] that uncritically amplify hate." He said that "If we unilaterally decide that [Fox Viewers] shouldn’t hear my or other Democrats’ messages, then we shouldn’t act surprised if they have a distorted view of what we believe and who we are."

"If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us. They will continue to fully claim American values like freedom, security, and democracy as property of the GOP," he said.

Buttigieg suggested that approach should come as no surprise. "From the beginning of this campaign, I’ve said that I would meet voters where they are. And that means sometimes moving beyond the echo chamber of like-minded voices."

Related: Buttigieg Says Big Tech May Need Breaking Up

Warren said last week: "Fox News is welcome to come to my events just like any other outlet. But a Fox News town hall adds money to the hate-for-profit machine."

Buttigieg is appearing Sunday at 7-8 p.m., from Claremont N.H., moderated by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. 

Wallace weighed in Sunday on Buttigieg's email. He pointed out that both Warren and candidate Kamala Harris had declined to appear in a Fox town hall and said he, too, thought it was a mistake for any candidate to cut themselves off from millions of voters--Fox is the top-rated cable news net. 

On Warren's "hate for profit" knock he said there was politics involved and she was entitled to do whatever she wants. "We don't have subpoena power. If they want to boycott us I don't like it, but it's up to them."