The US air-safety regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, is reportedly planning to issue pilots and airlines warnings about the potential interference new mid-band 5G networks may have on the cockpit safety system. The cockpit safety system helps planes avoid collisions in mid-air, prevents crashes and also facilitates landing in poor weather; so any interference with the system can prevent commercial pilots from using features that could lead to flight delays and cancellations in 46 metropolitan areas where the new c-band 5G towers are located; FAA believes.
The new 5G wireless service expected to go live in December is actually radio frequencies between 3.7 and 4.2GHz called C-band, which is close to the 4.2 and 4.4GHz frequencies that the aviation equipment operates in, a reason of concern. According to the Federal Communications Commission, responsible for regulating the commercial use of airwaves, the C-band 5G networks operate safely and do not cause harmful interference to the aviation equipment.
‘There is no available evidence to support the conclusion that 5G networks will interfere with aviation,’ FCC notes. FCC insists that thorough studies and technical analysis have been conducted to ensure 5G has no effect on airline safety and only then Verizon and other network providers have been given the go ahead to roll out the service.
Notably, FAA’s decision will not change the current rules of how consumers use smartphones on airlines. It believes that the towers on the ground transmitting 5G signals can affect certain automated features used by the pilots, and reportedly, that’s the sole concern.
There is no information on what the actual warning from FAA will be, but it is worth noting that according to the president of the CTIA trade association comprising Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, Meredith Attwell Baker, the C-band spectrum is “used in 40 countries” without “harmful interference” to affect “aviation.” So the mid-range C-band, which is faster than 4G and travels farther than mmWave (high-band) is critical to ensure Americans benefit from 5G.
