AT&T, Verizon Propose to Limit Power on C-Band to Assuage FAA Concerns

 By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief AT&T and Verizon have offered to transmit at lower power around airports for six months on their new C-band spectrum. That’s to give the FAA more time to figure out a fix for potential interference from 5G operations on 3.7 GHz to the 4.2-4.4 GHz band, where aircraft radio altimeters operate. Altimeters measure the distance from the ground to the aircraft, and the FAA and aviation and aerospace industries fear there could be harmful interference to those operations from 5G.

In a letter to the FCC on Friday, both carriers reminded the agencies that combined, they paid over $80 billion for the licenses and will hand over another $15 billion to satellite users who cleared the spectrum early. The carriers also re-iterated the FCC concluded, “after 17 years of global study and interagency dialogue across all relevant federal agencies—'the technical rules on power and emission limits we set for the 3.7 GHz Service and the spectral separation of 220 megahertz should offer all due protection to [radio altimeter] services in the 4.2-4.4 GHz band.’” Continue Reading