[mdasen]

I think there's a lot of pressure to get the spectrum in the hands of wireless carriers. They spent nearly $100B on that spectrum and Verizon and AT&T are anxious to put it into play. T-Mobile already has mid-band spectrum for 5G at 2.5GHz and they're seeing customers on their mid-band spectrum get speeds of around 300Mbps. As their mid-band coverage expands, Verizon and AT&T won't want to be left behind. Likewise, the administration would like for the US to be seen as a 5G leader. We see articles with headlines like "US carriers advertise 5G, but their speeds lag other countries." A huge part of that is that Verizon and AT&T haven't been able to deploy new spectrum.

I don't know enough about how far around airports they'd want to block C-Band from being used, but in a city like San Diego, it would probably block off a decent amount of the city given where its airport is. In a place like New York, how far would you want to block off? Clearly not all of bravo airspace, but how much is needed (maybe you know how much Canada had to block off)?

I'm not sure that the FAA is rolling over. In some ways, saying "we're going to make air-travel suffer huge problems if they start activating C-Band spectrum" is saying "if you activate C-Band spectrum, Congress is going to start having hearings as to why the government is letting wireless carriers prevent people from traveling." I think the FAA is noting exactly how bad the situation might be if they go forward with C-Band plans.

I think it's also a situation where people might be unsure who has authority. Can the FAA ban wireless signals that the FCC says are ok? Can one government agency take another to court despite being part of the same administration? At some point the administration controls both and might need to make a decision.

But I think there's a lot of pressure to let C-Band go forward. Wireless carriers are looking to 10x their wireless networks and it seems likely that wireless home internet will become a big way that more rural areas get high-speed internet (even C-Band signals can get decent range with good antennas and using low-frequency spectrum for uploads).

[alexjplant]

I was thinking the exact same thing re: San Diego since I live here. Whenever I walk or jog northbound on Harbor Drive past the airport I run by a cell tower disguised as a tree that's six lanes of traffic away from the airport fence. My apartment is a 1.5 mile walk from the terminal and I hear planes on a regular basis. It didn't really occur to me until I moved here how truly close the airport is to downtown.