According to several aeronautical experts, the launch of Band C, essential for the deployment of 5G, could cause dangerous interference with aviation systems. The US airline industry and the telecommunications giants can’t find common ground.
5G could disrupt up to 350,000 flights according to A4A
Airlines for America, a lobbying group for the US aviation industry, claims interference from 5G could disrupt up to 350,000 flights per year. In general, the American airline industry believes that this new C-Band is dangerous for aviation systems. If left unchecked, 5G could “Lead to disastrous delays, flight cancellations, or worse. Planes could even crash ”, say the experts of the aeronautical industry.
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Some large companies are among the anti-5G activists. This is the case of Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, who said last week that this problem was his “Number one concern in the short term”. Airplanes are not the only ones affected by this phenomenon: similar cockpit systems are also used in some helicopters, especially for emergency flights. “This could affect 40 to 50,000 people transported each year in emergency situations”, according to the Helicopter Association International.
Automated Aviation Systems Could Be Disrupted By C-Band
In the United States, AT&T and Verizon have already agreed to temporarily halt deployment of their new C-band frequencies. The two telecom giants are scheduled to resume on January 5. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) could join the dance to play the gendarme. The government agency warned that “Interference significant enough to terminate the use of automated cockpit systems could result in flight cancellations, delays or diversions in 46 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States.”.
The C-Band offers the promise of even more powerful 5G. It is furthermore the only way to harness the full potential of this technology. In the United States, this type of spectrum is permitted between 3.7 and 3.98 GHz, while the spectrum for aviation systems operates between 4.2 and 4.4 GHz. In theory, the two systems should be able to coexist, but aviation industry advocates warn that ” it is not so simple “.
The risk is that C-Band signals will interfere with radio altimeters of some automated cockpit systems commonly used to land in bad weather and to avoid head-on collisions with other airplanes … Due to C-Band, these systems may no longer be able to properly filter signals. Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, even described these effects as “Parasitic emissions for navigation systems”.