Boeing, Airbus executives urge delay in U.S. 5G wireless deployment
There is something weird going on here. Is this a turf battle between FCC and FAA? Does FAA not really have tech experts anymore?
This process has been going since 2011, with lots of input from stakeholders (the usual slow govt process). The FCC carefully studies interference before opening a band up.
The guard band is absolutely ridiculous at 220Mhz - I thought this was a typo when I saw it. Looking at Boeing comments, Boeing had requested a max guard band of 110Mhz and the FCC doubled that.
We have 30 - 40 countries already operating mobile services in this band. I haven't heard of credible reports of interference.
Finally, longstanding RF rules require that your RF equipment operate in its assigned band. The fault here, if any, lies with airlines and aircraft mfgs to update their equipment if needed. That said, I doubt it's needed.
So seriously, there is some weird FAA stuff going on now.
We wonder why the US infrastructure costs so much. Instead of doing some tests in the years that this was in the cards, the FAA is now throwing up all sorts of roadblocks, just as biden gets ready to spend $1.2 trillion on infrastructure.
Seriously, if this is a real issue, have every airline land near a test deployment of C-band, and figure out which altimeters are so pathetic they need a 200Mhz guard band.
For some additional information, the concerns that Boeing and Airbus have are around radar altimeters. These devices are used especially during landing scenarios, especially automated landing scenarios in low visibility weather. The radar altimeter devices that are in the belly of these planes use fairly low wattage power, and are easily overwhelmed by 5g base station equipment that is located on the landing paths of major airports. The concern is that 5g could interfere and render useless automated ILS landing for major airports. This concern also affects helicopters doing automated or assisted landing at helipads on hospitals and other more complicated landing scenarios.
There has been extensive research and testing that led to this conclusion of concern. You can read more about the background from the independent body that did the investigation:
https://www.rtca.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SC-239-5G-In...
And here's a great in depth video explaining the concerns from an actual 777 pilot for a major US airline:
Can someone with insight into radio technology explain this?
> The 5G network deployment in the U.S. starting on December 5 is in the 3700 to 3800-MHz bands then later in the 3700 to 3980-MHz bands. Radio altimeters use the 4200 to 4400-MHz band. [1].
Are these not sufficiently separated? Can this not be tested easily, by blasting 5G frequencies at a bunch of different planes in test flights? They've had like a decade to do this; I'd expect something more concrete then "concerns about potential interference" at this point.
[1] https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2021-1...
As a Canadian American flying Lufthansa from Vancouver to Munich direct I was amused to learn that so long as your flight isn't passing over US airspace nobody gives a rats ass about airplane mode and you can happily continue to use data and make calls (using a transmitter on the plane to relay signals I'd assume) for the entire flight including take off and landing.
This seems to be an entirely BS safety concern made up by US regulators for who even knows what reason.
Assuming the concerns are accurate, wouldn't this have a very simple solution?
5g has a very short range, about ~1000 feet. So the solution, to be very cautious, is easy: just don't put a 5g tower within 1500-2000 feet of an airport.
That aside, I'm highly skeptical of these concerns: for years pretty much all electronics were forced to be turned off for unfounded concerns. I remember having to turn off my CD Walkman on plane. Suffice it to say that in the 90's it has no wireless capabilities of any sort at all.
Maybe there is some other turf war or $$$ issue here?
How did 5G get this far into deployment all around the world without the apparent issue of interference being addressed much earlier?
I don't get it. What difference does it make if US delays roll out when many other countries are going ahead already? It's not like Boeing and Airbus planes don't operate in China, for example.
They're a day late and a dollar short. 5G is widespread in metropolitan area which tend to host airports. What's the actual deal with this?
I could easily do without 5G... 5G enables unwanted features.
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