FAA Deal Happens, Verizon Immediately Activates 2000 Additional 5G Towers In US

JAKARTA - Verizon Communications Inc plans to activate about 2,000 additional towers by February in the next phase of its 5G C-Band deployment following talks with US regulators.

The new phase comes after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday, January 28, that it had agreed that Verizon and AT&T could safely enable more 5G towers in their deployments that have been plagued by aircraft security concerns.

Verizon was now able to activate about 5,100 5G towers in January and will be able to activate about 2,000 more in February, according to a source quoted by Reuters. The source also added that Verizon's total 5G towers could continue to increase as aviation buffer zones are refined.

Concerns that the new towers could interfere with sensitive aircraft electronics briefly delayed the deployment of C-Band 5G, which was originally planned for early December 2021. Verizon finally agreed in January not to deploy about 500 5G towers near airports, as they thought they could interfere with some features on the planes.

The company said in January that it would initially offer 5G C-Band services to about 90 million people and promised to expand it to more than 100 million by March 31.

Verizon said Tuesday, February 1 that it had met its target of 100 million by February 1 and intends to "go beyond that goal."

He declined to comment on the number of new towers activated, but said he remained committed to "very productive discussions with the FAA and others".

The FAA said last Friday that new data had allowed it to "more precisely map the size and shape of the area around airports where 5G signals are reduced, shrinking areas where wireless carriers are delaying activation of their antennas."

Under the new revised exclusion zone, Verizon is expected to deploy about 14% of the 500 towers it held in January, or about 70 towers, the source added.

The FAA is working on the next version of the buffer zone that will allow Verizon to power additional towers. The FAA declined to comment on how many towers Verizon will turn on in February.