WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chief executives of AT&T and Verizon Communications rejected a request by U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to delay the planned Jan. 5 introduction of new 5G wireless service over aviation safety concerns.
Buttigieg and Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson had asked AT&T CEO John Stankey and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg for a commercial deployment delay of no more than two weeks.
The wireless companies in a joint letter Sunday said they would not deploy 5G around airports for six months but rejected any broader limitation on using C-Band spectrum. They said the Transportation Department proposal would be “an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
