Could 5G technology ground planes?
Airline CEO’s express concern
American Airlines Boeing 777-323 ER
-CC Photo by Anna Zvereva
By Tami Stevenson
Today, Verizon and AT&T are launching their next-generation 5G wireless technology after many delays due to concerns expressed by CEO’s from major airlines
such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, UPS Airlines and FedEx Express, to name a few.
Based on their evaluation of the data, airline CEO’s signed a letter, organized by Airlines for America, Monday, to White House officials and others stating, “Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies. The harm that will result from deployment on January 19 is substantially worse than we originally anticipated.” Stating this technology needed to be deployed in a safe manner around airports while calling for airport exclusions.
According to reports, this last two-week delay came only after threats of law suits from the airlines. It was also reported that after the threats, Verizon and AT&T also voluntarily agreed to expand exclusion zones, approximately two miles, around certain airports for six months, until July 5, 2022, something they already are doing in France.
During this next six months, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation officials will study the effects of the 5G network. They are very concerned the C-band spectrum for the 5G wireless services may interfere with radio altimeters and other vital aircraft equipment, especially when pilots have low visibility.
In January, 2021, the FCC held an auction where AT&T and Verizon won nearly all of the C-Band spectrum. The C-band auction was the highest-grossing spectrum auction ever held in the U.S., grossing more than $80 billion. It is reported that Verizon and AT&T took the lion’s share with Verizon paying more than $52 billion and AT&T more than $23 billion.
5G is expected to be 100 times faster than 4G and, some say it may begin the end of wired connections. Experts say a full length 8GB movie can be downloaded in six seconds.
