Policy Backgrounders

5G Deployments and Aviation Safety

January 26, 2022

On January 20, 2022, Verizon and AT&T publicly announced that they would delay the expansion of new 5G cellular service, near airports for six months, due to safety concerns that the signals might confuse certain kinds of aircraft safety equipment.  While the Committee for Economic Development (CED) welcomes the agreement by Verizon and AT&T, this disruption in the rollout of high-speed internet services, which would enable internet service up to 100 times faster than standard 4G, and in air traffic are a result of a lack of leadership and coordination within the federal government. Greater coordination over the past several years among the relevant Federal agencies (Federal Aviation Administration, the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration, and Federal Communications Commission) would have offered opportunities to resolve the issue before it became urgent to the American economy.