The Federal Aviation Administration and key C-Band stakeholders AT&T and Verizon have agreed on a glide path to protecting sensitive aviation systems while boosting 5G service around "certain airports." AT&T and Verizon have also agreed to extend current interference mitigation efforts for another year.
The FCC cleared AT&T and Verizon to start rolling out service in the C-Band after they paid billions for the privilege, but the companies agreed to hold off back in November after the FCC put out a bulletin advising pilots, aircraft owners, manufacturers and others on the potential impact of 5G flexible use operations in the C-band on radio altimeters (RAs), which gauge how close a plane is to terrain.
AT&T and Verizon then agreed to mitigate possible interference around certain airports while pointing out that they had been authorized by the FCC to proceed without those.
Back in January, the companies had agreed to keep those mitigation strategies in place until July 5, 2022, but the FAA said they had agreed Friday to extend those voluntarily efforts for another year.
That agreement includes, in the meantime, requiring operators of "regional aircraft" whose altimeters are most susceptible to interference to retrofit them with new filters by the end of the year and identifying airports where wireless service can be enhanced with the smallest risk of disrupting flight plans.
“Through close coordination with the FAA over the last several months, we have developed a more tailored approach to controlling signal strength around runways that allows us to activate more towers and increase signal strength," said AT&T. "Though our FCC licenses allow us to fully deploy much-needed C-Band spectrum right now, we have chosen in good faith to implement these more tailored precautionary measures so that airlines have additional time to retrofit equipment. We appreciate the FAA’s support of this approach, and we will continue to work with the aviation community as we move toward the expiration of all such voluntary measures by next summer." ■
