AT&T and Verizon told federal officials in a letter on Sunday it would not postpone the rollout of 5G wireless services near airports, rebuffing calls by the Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration to do so.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson urged AT&T's John Stankey and Hans Vestberg of Verizon in its own letter Friday to push back their scheduled launch of 5G services Wednesday for two weeks because of airline flight disruptions.

In response, the cellular companies said they will offer to implement similar restrictions on their 5G antennas as those used near French airports for six months.

"At its core, your proposed framework asks that we agree to transfer oversight of our companies' multi-billion dollar investment in 50 unnamed metropolitan areas representing the lion's share of the U.S. population to the FAA for an undetermined number of months or years," the companies said in the letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal and CNN.

"Agreeing to your proposal would not only be an unprecedented and unwarranted circumvention of the due process and checks and balances carefully crafted in the structure of our democracy but an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks."

The companies said questions about the operations of 5G towers near airports have been studied and issues resolved.

"We care deeply about the safety of our customers, employees and families, all of whom fly domestically and internationally for business and pleasure," the companies said. "Our two companies are deeply committed to public safety and national security, and fortunately, the question of whether 5G operation scan safely coexists with aviation has long been settled."

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