A last-minute delay Tuesday of 5G rollout avoided air turbulence... for now.
"I mean, the biggest worry is clearly interference with an airplane," said Dallas Morning News Aviation Writer Kyle Arnold. "This is a lot like, you know, years ago with cell phones and airplanes. We're not quite sure what the wide-scale impact is."
Arnold said other countries like France and Canada have implemented 5G. "What they do is they limit it around airports," Arnold said. "They limit the strength of these towers. They point the towers down towards the ground so that the signal doesn't go quite as far."
The controversy comes on the heels of a rough couple of years for the airline industry and passengers, with weather-related and COVID-related delays and cancellations.
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"Airlines are warning of major disruptions that would have happened tomorrow if they would have implemented these," Arnold said. "The biggest thing you're probably going to see is maybe a wait and a delay sitting there at the airport... and possible a price hike because any delays make the whole process more expensive."
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, President Biden said, in part, "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 coexist."
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This latest and fastest generation of cellular networks has been called "the backbone of our economic future" by the FCC chairwoman. But the leaders of major airlines say its technology that could lead to "catastrophic disruptions."
They say 5G operates on a radio spectrum that could interfere with a plane's radio altimeter, which American Airlines Captain and spokesperson for its pilots’ union Dennis Tajer said could cause havoc landing in inclement weather.
"If these systems are getting bad information and they react, we could have a 777 coming, a very heavy, large aircraft. And if suddenly the radio altimeter thinks it's coming close to the ground and ready to land, the throttles automatically come back. Now, the pilot can override that. But in that time it takes to identify, even the FAA said that the pilot may not quickly recognize this, and it can cause them to lose the ability to fly safely and land safely,” said Tajer.
AT&T took aim at the FAA in a statement:
“At our sole discretion we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the FAA to provide further information about our 5G deployment, since they have not utilized the two years they’ve had to responsibly plan for this deployment. 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 do so in a timely manner. We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.”
The FAA has countered there are safer ways to implement the technology. In a recent report, it pointed to France where 5G antennas near runways are placed differently, their power levels are lowered and antennas are angled down.
"We want that cell phone signal as well. It means that AT&T and Verizon are very successful, and they're profitable. When they are, they hire people. Those people have to travel for work. I fly them. It all works together. One thing though we're not going to give up on is if you don't do it safely, you're not doing it. And today, at least, we have a pause,” said Tajer.
AT&T and Verizon have not said how many airports are included in their delay.
However, the FAA released a list of fifty airports last week where there will be a temporary buffer zone without 5G signals. Both DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field are on that list.
