Friendly Skies, Verizon & AT&T 5G Whiz Way To Nowhere

Some say a 6-year turf war between FAA & FCC & old fashioned scientific ignorance accounts for a messed up new generation 5G rollout by Verizon & AT&T that threatened thousands of commercial flight cancellations. And, they are STILL arguing.

The WSJ summed it up by kindly concluding “longstanding disagreements between the federal agencies over potential risks to aircraft remained unresolved in the days leading to the 5G [cellular] debut” and, then, they unsuccessfully “scrambled” to reach a last minute compromise. But, airline and telecom heads still can’t believe it happened to them since way back in 2015 the Federal Aviation Administration had questioned “whether decades-old aviation equipment would be disrupted by new [& more powerful] cellular signals;” yet, the risk to aircraft from 5G was supposedly tested and “dismissed by the telecom industry & its regulator,” i.e., the Federal Communications Commission, which saw “thin evidence” of any problems at all.

On Tuesday, AT&T & Verizon agreed to restrict their 5G signals around major airports & all seemed at peace in the Friendly Skies; but after the new signal began beaming to cell phone customers, some commuter flights were barred from landing in SF since the FAA hadn’t cleared them while aircraft manufacturer Boeing warned European airlines flying its 777 wide body jet to avoid some US destinations where 5G service now existed. Meanwhile, more testing continues and each agency is sticking to its “concerns” & “no concern” positions.

Davd Soul