Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are expected to meet airline industry stakeholders to discuss 5G-related matters. According to Reuters, the FAA wants airlines to replace affected aircraft radio altimeters. The meeting comes almost exactly two months before the delayed 5G rollout by telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon Communications near airports.
In late 2021, the FAA expressed concern about the planned 5G rollout in the United States. The US government agency, along with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), flagged possible interference between the frequencies used by newer 5G networks and radio altimeters in passenger planes.
What is the meeting about?
As it stands, major telecom companies agreed to create low-intensity ‘buffer zones’ near airports and runways where the troublesome 5G C-Band signal would make itself scarce to avoid any untoward aviation safety risks. These buffer zone arrangements are effective only until July 5th, 2022
The meet aims to focus on ways to ensure that post the mentioned date, 5th generation mobile network frequencies don’t interfere with radio altimeters in some aircraft. The issue is quite polarizing as the FAA and airline conglomerates believe new C-Band frequencies pose a threat to aviation safety. Still, at the same time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and telecom companies don’t subscribe to that theory.
This dispute has been going on since late 2021, and none of the stakeholders seemed keen on backing down from their respective stands. However, it seems the FAA may be willing to make a major compromise by asking airlines to replace old altimeters with new ones that would have better range filters, capable of limiting interference from neighboring frequencies.
The problem with 5G
Understanding the technicalities of the 5G problem can be a bit difficult for someone without a degree in electronics engineering, but here’s a simplified version. Airplanes use radio altimeters, also known as RadAlt, to measure their altitude from the ground using bouncing radio waves in the range of 4.2 to 4.4 GHz.
This wasn’t a problem for airlines until US telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon found they could achieve the perfect balance of coverage and speed in so-called ‘C-Band’ frequencies that operate from 3.7 to 3.98 GHz. These frequencies are pretty close to the spectrum used by global aviation, and therefore, the FAA believes the chances of interference are substantial.
Telecom providers have a plethora of reasons for their unwillingness to give up their frequencies. As mentioned, the notorious C-Band frequency provides a myriad of advantages over others, the most prominent of them being improved coverage, cheaper operating costs, and faster speeds. Secondly, companies like AT&T have spent tens of billions in acquiring licenses to these frequencies from the FCC, and suddenly giving them up would be bad for business.
Now that the FAA is pushing for replacing affected altimeters (or retrofitting them with antenna filters), telecom giants would finally be able to unleash the C-Band’s full potential without any restrains. However, only the results of today’s meeting will decide the future course of the 5G issue. It will be interesting to see how things pan out in the near future. As always, Simple Flying will be quick to report on any further developments.
Source: simpleflying.com