Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

On Wednesday, AT&T will launch its expanded 5G service in just eight metro areas in the United States, including Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Jacksonville, Orlando and South Florida (PDF). This comes after AT&T and Verizon voluntarily restricted activation of the C-band spectrum around airports after facing increasing pressure from airlines.

Chris Sambar, executive vice president of technology operations at AT&T, explained in a post announcing the expansion: "Today's introduction began in a limited portion of the eight metro areas of the United States, and it will expand rapidly as our thoughtful and efficient deployment increases throughout the year. "There are already 17 C-Band enabled devices online and in our stores, and you can start seeing those speeds today. "

VERIZON plans to open signal towers in 1,700 cities this month.

Just a day before Verizon and AT&T are scheduled to launch 5G on Jan. 19, major airlines warned against activating 5G towers for fear of causing "catastrophic disruption" to flights across the country. Aviation, United Arab Emirates, Air and All Nippon Airways cancelled some flights early because of concerns that 5G extensions could interfere with radar altimeters used by aircraft for low-visibility landings. Before the launch, the FAA struck a deal with two carriers to create 50 buffers where AT&T and Verizon would shut down transmitters near airports with heavy traffic and low visibility for six months.

In a statement to The Verge, AT&T expressed disappointment that the FAA failed to "take advantage of the two years they had to responsibly plan for this deployment" and "was unable to do what nearly 40 countries do to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting air service." AT&T and Verizon activated C-band spectrum facing FAA obstruction, resulting in two delays. While AT&T has taken a more cautious approach to its launch, Verizon plans to launch its network in 1,700 cities this month--reaching more than 100 million people.

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