Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asked AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to delay a 5 G wireless service set to begin next week that airlines say may pose a safety risk by interfering with aircraft electronics.
Without action, airlines could be forced into widespread and unacceptable disruption, Buttigieg and Steve Dickson, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a letter Friday to wireless providers chief executives.
The two officials said that airliners could be diverted from airports where landings aren't safe, causing ripple effects throughout the U.S. air transportation system.
The request for a two-week delay from Jan. 5 comes amid a debate over what the new wireless service might have. The argument pitted the FAA and the aviation community, which raised alarms over safety concerns, against wireless providers and the Federal Communications Commission, which authorized the planned 5 G service and said there was no threat to safety.
The argument revolves around radar altimeters, which operate on frequencies close to those assigned to the new 5 G service. The FAA warned on December 23 that aircraft safety devices could malfunction due to missing or erroneous altimeter readings.
The wireless industry said power levels are low enough to preclude interference, and pointed out that 5 G operations outside the U.S. haven't harmed aviation. Aerospace experts have said power levels and frequencies are different in other nations, which have instituted protections requested by U.S. airlines.
In their Friday letter, the U.S. officials requested a delay of no more than two weeks. The aviation industry and the FAA will identify airports that have a buffer zone that will allow flights to continue safely.
In addition to the two-week delay, the transportation officials asked the companies to hold off on the new service near priority airports. They proposed that the service could be activated near those airports on a rolling basis through March.
Most 5 G customers could use the new service, but critical runways would be protected, they said. The FAA said it is trying to identify the airports it views as priorities and to identify mitigations that will allow most large commercial aircraft to operate safely.
The proposal minimizes the short-term economic and operational burden while permanent fixes are quickly put into place, Buttigieg and Dickson said. It will still cause significant disruptions for the U.S. aviation operations, but it is a much better way forward than the current trajectory. AT&T and Verizon had earlier postponed new service for a month, to Jan. 5, and said they would operate at reduced power in response to aviation concerns.
Rich Young, a spokesman for the company, said Verizon received the letter after 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve and needs time to review it.
Kim Hart, an AT&T spokeswoman, said the company was reviewing the letter.
Failure to reach a solution by January 5 will cause the U.S. aviation sector to take measures to protect the safety of the traveling public, especially during periods of low visibility or inclement weather, the two officials wrote in the letter.
The proposal minimizes the short-term economic burdens on the two companies while allowing the government to assess risks and is a much better way forward than the current trajectory, the letter said.
The top two aviation regulators in the U.S. said they recognized the importance of moving forward on 5 G, but added that their request was needed to maintain aviation safety.
The letter said that the United States has the safest aviation system in the world. We identify risks and eliminate them every day and we achieve this by actively identifying and eliminating them. The risk can depend on detailed analysis of tower locations and precise radio beam power levels, and the issue of potential interference with aircraft equipment has been percolating for a long time. Such detailed data has been handed over to the FAA in recent weeks.
The FAA is working with manufacturers of radar altimeters to better understand potential interference but needs more time to identify priority airports and complete technical work, the letter said.