The Federal Aviation Administration gives the green light to install 5G antennas around airports
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on Friday that it has authorized mobile operators AT&T and Verizon to deploy additional 5G antennas around airports in the United States, although certain restrictions remain in place to ensure safety. landings.
The FAA feared interference between the new 5G frequencies could disrupt those of the altimeters on board airliners, endangering flight safety. AT&T and Verizon had agreed in mid-January to start deploying their 5G network by postponing the activation of towers installed near certain airports. “Through continued technical collaboration, the FAA, Verizon, and AT&T have agreed on measures that will allow more aircraft to safely use major airports while activating more antennas for their 5G network. the FAA said in a statement.
Information provided by operators on the exact location of antennas and new analyzes on the interactions between 5G signals and altimeters have further narrowed down potential problem areas, the FAA explained, authorizing about 90% of the fleet of planes of American airlines to land in the majority of cases. Constraints still remain in place for some aircraft models and some airport runways in the event of low visibility.
The Association of American Airlines (A4A), however, noted that there was “still a lot of work to do” to minimize disruption to air traffic as 5G towers are rolled out. The biggest companies have reported in recent days that concessions made by operators have avoided mass flight cancellations, but that small disruptions are still to be expected.