AT&T, Verizon Called Winners on C-Band By Being Able to Turn on 5G
The biggest news this week on the C band is that, despite the “noise,” Verizon and AT&T were able to turn on the band in key markets, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Thursday. “The last 72 hours probably had…
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more press stories about spectrum than any 72-hour period in history,” including a question at President Joe Biden’s news conference (see 2201190064), he said. “The dispute will leave a problematic residue in terms of spectrum policy but the important thing for investors is that AT&T and Verizon were able to begin 5G transmissions, the constraints on the service will not affect their ability to attract subscribers, and the battle did not cause a delay that would have materially worsened their competitive position relative to T-Mobile,” Levin said. Verizon and AT&T had to agree to new conditions to “placate” the FAA because they need to play catch up with T-Mobile, Mark Giles, lead industry analyst at Ookla, blogged Thursday. “It was critical for both telcos that the delay to their C-band launch was only temporary,” he said: With the C band, “the margin of difference” with T-Mobile “will be substantially reduced, and then it will largely come down to how many 5G cell sites each operator deploys, and when they can turn on additional spectrum resources -- the race is on.” The FAA said Thursday it has cleared 78% of the U.S. commercial fleet to do low-visibility landings at airports near C-band deployments, including some regional jets. That’s up from 62% Wednesday. “The FAA is working diligently to determine which altimeters are reliable and accurate where 5G is deployed,” the agency said: “We anticipate some altimeters will be too susceptible to 5G interference. To preserve safety, aircraft with those altimeters will be prohibited from performing low-visibility landings where 5G is deployed because the altimeter could provide inaccurate information.”