https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/business/att-verizon-5g-airlines.html
==Daily Business Briefing
AT&T will delay 5G service at some airports after airlines warn of flight chaos.==
Jan. 18, 2022, 12:42 p.m. ET
AT&T said on Tuesday that it would wait to turn on new 5G cellular service near some airports, an attempt to address concerns that the company’s equipment would interfere with airplane equipment when the service started on Wednesday.
The telecom company said in a statement that it had “voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways” while it continued to work with aviation regulators. It was not immediately clear whether the company’s decision would satisfy airlines and aviation safety regulators.
“We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers,” an AT&T representative said in the statement. The company did not say at which airports it will delay activating the new service, which will expand coverage of the fast, next-generation 5G network.
Verizon, which is also slated to turn on its own new service on Wednesday, declined to comment.
AT&T’s announcement came just after the executives of several airlines and others in the aviation industry sent a letter to the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, saying that they feared chaos at airports and cargo hubs because of restrictions put in place by aviation regulators to avoid interference between the new wireless service and plane equipment used during takeoffs and landings.