With the aviation industry raising concerns, the United States authorities have asked major telecoms operators to hold off on their planned rollout of 5G networks.
AT&T and Verizon, two of the biggest operators in the US, were asked by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Steve Dickson, have been asked to delay the rollout for another two weeks. The rollout was originally planned for December 5, but has already been delayed until January 5 after aerospace giants Airbus and Boeing voiced worries about potential interference.
According to an AFP report, Buttigieg requested a delay “for an additional short period of no more than two weeks” in a letter to the companies.
In the letter, Buttigieg wrote: “We recognise the significant investment your companies made to launch 5G C-band service, and the importance of expanding 5G service for the American economy. At the same time, absent further action, the economic stakes for the aviation industry and the disruptions the traveling public would face from commercial launch of C-Band service on January 5 are significant, particularly with the ongoing stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.”
The government has proposed that commercial C-band service begins as planned in January with certain exceptions around priority airports. The FAA and the aviation industry will identify priority airports where a buffer zone would permit aviation operations to continue safely while the FAA completes its assessments of the interference potential around those airports.
“Our goal would then be to identify mitigations for all priority airports that will enable the majority of large commercial aircraft to operate safely in all conditions. This will allow for 5G C-band to deploy around these priority airports on a rolling basis, such that C-Band planned locations will be activated by the end of March 2022, barring unforeseen technical challenges or new safety concerns. Meanwhile, the FAA will safely expedite the approvals of Alternate Means of Compliance (AMOCs) for operators with high-performing radio altimeters to operate at those airports,” he added.
The concerns are with regards to the use of the range of frequencies used by both 5G technology as well as the devices on aircraft for measuring altitude. AT&T and Verizon acquired the authorisation to start using 3.7-3.8 GHz — the so-called C-Band service — frequency back in February 2021 after paying billions of dollars.
The FAA warned last month that 5G signals could produce missing or erroneous altimeter readings, while the wireless industry maintains that power levels used in their networks are too low to generate interference.
Wireless industry group CTIA said 5G is safe and spectrum is being used in about 40 other countries.
