Airline CEOs are taking a major shift on the issue of 5G deployment. This occured days after American Airlines Doug Parker and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby signed a letter stating that 5G on C-Band would cause “catastrophic disruption” to air travel.
“The technical experts that are working on it tell us it’s really not that complicated once they all are able to share information and work on it. So they seem encouraged that we’ll be able to address this in a way that allows for full deployment of 5G, including near airports. I don’t expect until we get to the point that everyone is really comfortable that you’ll see anything turned on near airports because no one wants to go through this again,” Parker said.
The battle between the FAA and telecom giants on the deployment of 5G service seems to be nearing a temporary end.
The FAA has cleared 13 altimeters that can filter out-licensed 5G transmission from the C-band spectrum. More expected approvals will take the U.S. to 100 percent capacity.
The controversy on 5G deployment has continued to linger on partly due to the inability of the FAA to evaluate and approve altimeters.
Instead, the FAA argued without proof that 5G on the C-Band spectrum (3.7 to 3.98 GHz) would disrupt altimeters that use spectrum from 4.2 GHz to 4.4 GHz.
For more information, read the original story in ArsTechnica.