Verizon, AT&T will pause C-band 5G deployments for two more weeks

The FAA-telco-FCC saga over the airspace added another chapter this week.

Despite earlier reports that they would move forward with 5G deployments initially planned for today—regardless of FAA and airline concerns—Verizon and AT&T on Monday agreed to delay the rollout of C-band 5G services by two weeks, to January 19.

The two spent a collective ~$70 billion to acquire this slice of spectrum last February, and they had already delayed the rollout by a month in November. C-band is seen as the “goldilocks spectrum” for 5G, because it’s fast, plentiful, and covers a wide geographic area.

Refresher: This whole standoff originated over FAA concerns that the C-band rollout might interfere with pilot cockpit-safety systems used to land in bad weather. If the FAA’s concerns bore out, planes would need to adjust flight schedules, affecting thousands of flights nationwide.

• FWIW, the FCC studied the issue last year, and says it found no evidence to support such concerns.

Looking ahead…After the rollout, the telcos will also operate “exclusion zones” around 50 airports in the US, for a duration of six months. In these zones, C-band 5G won’t run the risk of interfering with any airplane systems. These exclusion zones are modeled after European nations like France, where C-band 5G is already in place but restricted to operate within airport territory.