Two days before the start of the fifth generation networks, across the United States, American airlines warned that this might lead to chaos in flights, and might lead to disaster, raising questions regarding the reason for this warning and its motives.
At the beginning of 2021, Verizon and AT&T won contracts of regarding $80 billion to operate 5G networks in the United States, but the launch of the project was postponed twice due to warnings from airlines and aircraft manufacturers, who were concerned regarding the interference of the new communications system. With devices used by aircraft to measure altitude.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and government officials, airline chiefs said: “We are writing to you urgently to request that 5G networks operate everywhere in the country except for approximately two miles from airport runways, as defined by the Federal Aviation Administration.” I on January 19, 2022.
What is the cause of the crisis?
The two carriers are slated to deploy the 5G network in the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz band on the spectrum known as the C-band, while altimeters operate in the 4.2 to 4.4 GHz band.
The concern of airlines is that the frequencies within which the fifth generation network will spread are close to those used by altimeters that measure the distance the plane travels above the ground, facilitating automated landings and helping to monitor dangerous wind currents.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said last month that 5G operating guidelines would prevent radio altimeters from being used at regarding 40 of the largest US airports.
US airlines have warned that the directives might disrupt up to four percent of daily flights.
“If the issue is left unresolved, it might mean that at major US airports, in the event of bad weather or cloud cover or even thick smog, you can only do it primarily visually,” Kirby said.
But the two carriers, which have been awarded contracts to deploy the 5G network, argue that the system has been deployed in regarding 40 other countries, without problems with aviation interference.
The two companies said they had agreed to buffer zones around 50 airports in the United States, similar to those used in France, for a period of six months to reduce the risk of interference.
But airlines say that the frequencies on which the 5G network will spread in Europe are lower than those offered in the United States.
In 2019, the European Union set standards for the frequencies of the fifth generation, medium-range, in the range of 3.4 to 3.8 GHz, which is a frequency lower than the service scheduled to be launched in the United States.
The bandwidth has been auctioned in Europe and is being used in many of the bloc’s 27 member states so far without a problem.
The higher the frequency in the spectrum, the faster the service and getting the full value out of the 5G network, but Verizon said it won’t be using spectrum closer to the higher band (3.98 GHz) for several years.
But the American Wireless Commerce Group, in its testimony to the Federal Communications Commission, said that the fifth generation network for mobile phones, in South Korea, has been operated on a frequency range between 3.42 to 3.7 GHz and no radio interference has been reported since the network was marketed in April 2019. 5G mobile radio stations are currently operating near airports, and there have been no reports of problems.
