Nearly 11 months after major United States telecommunications companies won bids for $81 billion worth of C-band radio spectrum to roll out 5G services, the much-anticipated introduction hit a major snag this week, when the country’s major airlines Warning of massive flight disruptions. If wireless technology was put into operation, especially around the country’s airports. In a settlement on the eve of the planned roll-out on January 19, AT&T and Verizon agreed to delay the introduction of new wireless service near major airports. Despite commitments from the two major telecommunications companies, many domestic and international airlines flying to the US cited warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aircraft manufacturers about the possibility of canceling flights to many destinations, as well as major The rescheduling has announced that the precise functioning of the radar altimeter in some aircraft may be affected by 5G radio frequencies. Altimeters provide information about an aircraft’s altitude and are an important part of flight operations for pilots, especially when seeking to perform low visibility landings in inclement weather. At the heart of the impasse is the fact that both 5G services and some flight equipment operate on the same C-band radio spectrum, differing only in frequencies. The FAA has said it is working with altimeter manufacturers to evaluate data from wireless companies to determine how robust each model is, and if necessary, whether the devices can be retrofitted or replaced. could.
The fact that the world’s largest economy now faces the risk of massive domestic and international air travel disruptions, as the relatively late roll-out of 5G telecommunications services, points to problems specific to the US market, including The frequencies allocated there specifically for 5G are included. South Korea, China and Japan, and several European countries have already successfully rolled out 5G services, and US telecommunications companies have cited the lack of problems in these jurisdictions as evidence that the FAA and airlines need solutions to deploy wireless. More needs to be done to find out. Technology near airports. The FAA on its website points to the specifics of the proposed 5G roll-out in the US compared to the situation in France, saying some key differences pose challenges. For one, the aviation regulator opposes the planned buffer zone for US airports, protecting only the last 20 seconds of flight, while the last 96 seconds of flight in France are protected from any interruption by 5G signals. Furthermore, 5G power levels are low in France, with even the planned temporary nationwide low power levels in the US still expected to be 2.5 times more powerful. US President Joe Biden and his administration will have to finish their job of finding a long-term solution to the impasse to minimize any disruption to global travel and business sectors already affected by the pandemic.
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