January 18, 2022 / 3:05 PM.

"At our sole discretion we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the FAA to provide further information about our 5G deployment," an AT&T spokesperson said in a statement.

Verizon said its technology, which is intended to increase speed, reliability and power for more than 90 million Americans, will launch Wednesday as planned, but with the temporary limit around airports. 

"We are writing with urgency to request that 5G be implemented everywhere in the country except within the approximate two miles of airport runways as defined by the FAA on January 19, 2022," airline CEOs said in the letter. 

AT&T said it is frustrated by the FAA's "inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner." The Verizon statement echoed that statement, noting that the technology is "safe and fully operational" in dozens of other countries. 

It said the aviation industry and the FAA "have not utilized the two years they've had to responsibly plan for this deployment."