FAA REACHES AGREEMENT WITH TELECOM INDUSTRY REGARDING 5G: NEW COMPROMISES
June 29, 2022
On June 17, 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) announced an agreement with the telecom industry to permit AT&T and Verizon to boost their 5G signals around key airports, while keeping in place certain limitations for 5G deployment and setting a timeline for the upgrading of aircraft altimeters in order to avoid signal interference. Practically, this means that the telecom companies and FAA have reached a final agreement to delay rolling out some 5G signals for an additional year to allow more time for replacing and filtering radar altimeters and therefore prevent interference. The agreement also details several airports where 5G services can be enhanced without posing a significant risk of disruption to flight schedules. In recent months the FAA identified approximately 1,700 Airbus and Embraer aircraft that would need to be retrofit or upgrade their altimeters to avoid signal interference. FAA has also categorized aircraft depending on their vulnerability to 5G signal interference which is the determining factor in FAA’s timeline. The agency also stated that it estimates that the work to retrofit or update affected aircraft should be completed by July 2023 as far as the mainline commercial fleet is concerned, which could mean that the telecom companies would be able to fully rollout 5G networks by that time.
Announcement of the agreement has not been well received by airlines or interest groups. Airlines for America (“A4A”), for example, in response to an FAA letter urging air carriers to expedite retrofitting of vulnerable aircraft where and if they could, argued that the request carried an undue burden in terms of air carrier operations and expressed that it felt the matter has still not yet been properly addressed. A4A also expressed serious concerns regarding the FAA’s decision to place the burden for expedited updates and retrofits on the aviation industry, calling the decision “reckless” in terms of proposed design changes to safety-critical avionics.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6665).
*Editor’s Note: We would like to give special thanks to Summer Intern, Thiseas Efthymiou for his contributions to this month’s posts.
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