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Verizon, AT&T agree to delay 5G rollout around airports

Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre reports that Verizon and AT&T have agreed to delay their 5G rollout around airports after airline CEOs warned of travel disruptions.

Video Transcript

- I want to get to some breaking news now and bring Jared Blikre in here. We were talking about 5G, Jared, over the past week. And now, there's news Verizon and AT&T are going to delay rolling out more 5G service so they don't interfere with the airports. Tell us more about this.

JARED BLIKRE: Yes, well, I think we can all agree the last thing any of us want is interference with airplanes as they're trying to take off and land, but President Biden has issued a statement regarding the situation. I just want to read from it for a second here.

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I want to thank Verizon and AT&T for agreeing to delay 5G deployment around the airports and to continue working with the Department of Transportation on safe 5G deployment at this limited set of locations. This agreement will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and our economic recovery as well, while allowing more than 90% of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled. This agreement protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to millions of Americans. The statement goes on.

But nevertheless, this is a problem that kind of caught the public eye by surprise over the last week. A lot of people wondering why this is happening at the last minute. But nevertheless, this is going to affect a number of towers around the country. And President Biden is saying that he hopes that there is a speedy resolution to this, but it will have to be safe, of course.

- Of course, hard to believe they didn't know this ahead of time. Some unintended consequences there for sure. Jared Blikre, thank you.