(Bloomberg) — Verizon Communications Inc. needs to pick up the pace on upgrades to the Federal Aviation Administration’s telecommunications network if it wants to hang on to its $2.4 billion contract, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
“If I’m looking back, they’re not moving fast enough,” Duffy said at a press briefing in Washington on Tuesday. “I need companies that are going to move fast.”
While Verizon is still “in play” for the contract, “how we move forward is a question we’re going to grapple with,” Duffy said.
The US telecom giant’s efforts to upgrade the FAA’s networks have come under scrutiny after Bloomberg News first reported last month that the US aviation regulator had separately begun testing the use of SpaceX’s Starlink for parts of the system upgrade.
Duffy didn’t mention Elon Musk’s company by name, and he said any solution will need to involve more than one partner. Some lawmakers have questioned Musk’s involvement with the upgrade effort, pointing to the billionaire’s potential conflict of interest because the FAA regulates several of his companies.
The FAA’s telecommunications networks are instrumental to overseeing 29 million square miles of US airspace and ensuring the orderly and safe movement of 45,000 flights daily. Yet the systems are aging and long overdue for an upgrade. In 2023, the agency awarded Verizon a contract worth $2.4 billion to fulfill the task.
The contract, which is for 15 years, requires Verizon to oversee the development and maintenance of the system, including removing obsolete network equipment and replacing it with fiber-optic cables and other gear.
Verizon hasn’t yet started installing the new networks. “The American people can’t wait 10 years or 12 years to lay fiber,” Duffy said on Tuesday.
“Verizon continues to work with the FAA on solutions that will create an advanced, national air traffic control system — one that is safer for the flying public,” Verizon spokesman Rich Young said in a statement. “We said from the beginning that we are open and willing to work with companies that may offer complementary services to this new communications network. Our teams have been actively working with the FAA’s technology teams and our solutions stand ready to be deployed.”
–With assistance from Kelcee Griffis.
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