{"id":7333,"date":"2022-01-19T03:44:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T08:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=7333"},"modified":"2022-01-19T03:44:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T08:44:38","slug":"faas-nationwide-5g-legal-debate-began-quietly-in-an-ocean-county-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2022\/01\/faas-nationwide-5g-legal-debate-began-quietly-in-an-ocean-county-town-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"FAA’s Nationwide 5G Legal Debate Began Quietly in an Ocean County Town Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Airbus<\/a>

Airbus A380 Cockit. (Credit: jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)<\/p><\/div>\n

It was such a simple request, Verizon didn\u2019t seem to question it. But the inclusion of a small requirement, and its wider legal justification, as a condition of the borough\u2019s approval of 5G network equipment in town may very well have kicked off what has become a major national debate over network deployment near airports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re thinking it\u2019s odd that a town with no airport \u2013 and only a few blocks wide \u2013 would somehow become a part of a game of brinkmanship between the aerospace and telecommunications industries (plus some inter-governmental federal rivalries for good measure), you\u2019re probably not alone. But indeed, it appears the first legal nexus between FAA rules, FCC regulations, a lawmaking body and 5G infrastructure came at a meeting of the Lavallette borough council when the governing body forced Verizon to agree to adhere to all FAA regulations as part of its approval package to install seven utility pole-mounted 5G nodes around town.<\/p>\n

With just hours to spare before Wednesday\u2019s national 5G launch date of new frequencies on which 5G signals will be carried in the United States by two providers \u2013 Verizon and AT&T \u2013 the carriers voluntarily decided against switching on several large antennas on high towers near certain airports. The new frequencies in what is known as the C band are below those that radioaltimeters in commercial airliners utilize by about 200 megahertz, but airlines and some manufacturers have still expressed concern over interference.<\/p>\n

The radioaltimeter in a modern airliners<\/a> varies in its use cases depending on manufacturer, but all use the device to calculate altitude and approach criteria during instrument landings. In some cases, features such as planemaker Embraer\u2019s \u201cautoland\u201d would have been blocked from use in airports with notoriously low visibility. That led to fears of canceled and diverted flights due to weather conditions that would otherwise not cause any issues. The telecommunications industry has said the technology is safe and has been proven abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and our nation\u2019s airlines have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries,\u201d Verizon said Tuesday afternoon in a statement.<\/p>\n

So what is the Lavallette connection?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A computer rendering of what 5G network nodes will look like in Lavallette. (Source: Verizon via Lavallette Borough)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe were working on the original applications from Verizon,\u201d said Borough Attorney Philip G George. \u201cWe noticed that there was some correspondence that referenced the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which is when they promulgated radiofrequency standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Lavallette was locked in a standoff<\/a> with Verizon over the proposed 5G nodes to be placed on utility poles. The company hosted several meetings, and borough officials initially declined to approve the company\u2019s application after they refused to meet several terms, including providing radiofrequency measuring equipment to local emergency workers.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, facing the stated threat of a federal lawsuit that would likely have led to millions of dollars in legal fees, the borough held another vote on the approvals. This time, the council\u2019s fewer stipulations passed muster with Verizon\u2019s attorney, and the nodes were approved for installation. One of those stipulations was unusual, however: Verizon must comply, even in Lavallette, with all radiofrequency regulations set by the FAA<\/em> in addition to the FCC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found that one little note about the FAA and wondered, \u2018what the heck does the FAA have to say about this?\u2019 George recalled. \u201cWell, it turns out there\u2019s a comment from a company saying the radioaltimeters were sensitive to one particular band. I suggested we bring it up at the meeting. We brought it up, and everybody went aghast. No one ever heard of it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remaining question, of course, is how the FAA\u2019s radioaltimeter concerns could ever affect Lavallette.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an emergency heliport on the bay and we have the approach to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst coming right over us,\u201d said George.<\/p>\n

The FAA requirement netted one sentence of coverage in Shorebeat\u2019s story<\/a> about the 5G network approval, but the word got out. An industry publication followed up in-depth, sparking what has now become a battle of two heavyweight corporate interests in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered this on a back page, covered with dust, and it became a national issue,\u201d said Mayor Walter LaCicero.<\/p>\n

Locally-installed 5G network nodes do not carry the same power or disbursement of large tower-mounted antennas, however the expanded frequencies will become active Wednesday except in the areas around about 20 airports, most of which have visibility hindrances.<\/p>\n

LaCicero said the airlines \u201cwent right to the brink\u201d on the matter, similar to how the companies dealt with towns like Lavallette that opposed some aspects of 5G deployment. But it was just a bit of curiosity \u2013 and pen put to legal pad \u2013 that will solidify Lavallette\u2019s place in history as an unlikely factor in America\u2019s 5G infrastructure.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was such a simple request, Verizon didn\u2019t seem to question it. But the inclusion of a small requirement, and its wider legal justification, as a condition of the borough\u2019s approval of 5G network equipment in town may very well have kicked off what has become a major national debate over network deployment near airports. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1457,1080,895,11],"class_list":["post-7333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean-county-news","tag-5g","tag-featured","tag-lavallette","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screen-Shot-2022-01-19-at-3.34.21-AM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}