Bloomberg — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asked AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to delay a 5G wireless service set to commence 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 the wireless providers’ chief executives.
Airplanes could be diverted from airports where landings aren’t safe, “causing ripple effects throughout the U.S. air transportation system,” the two officials said.
The request for a two-week delay, from Jan. 5, comes amid a running debate over what effect the new wireless service might have. The argument has pitted the FAA and aviation community, which raised alarms over safety concerns, against wireless providers and the Federal Communications Commission, which authorized the planned new 5G service and said there was no threat to safety.
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The argument revolves around altitude-sensing devices called radar altimeters that operate on frequencies close to those assigned to the new 5G service. The FAA on Dec. 23 warned that aircraft safety devices could malfunction from missing or erroneous altimeter readings.
The wireless industry said power levels are low enough to preclude interference, and pointed out that 5G operations outside the U.S. haven’t harmed aviation. Aerospace experts have said that power levels and frequencies are different in other nations, which have in some cases instituted the protections requested by U.S. airlines.
Read More: Alerts on 5G Interference With Aircraft Expanded by FAA
The U.S. officials in their Friday letter requested a delay of “no more than two weeks.” During that time, the FAA and the aviation industry will identify airports where a buffer zone would permit flights to continue safely.
In addition to the two-week delay, the…
Source : time
