US phone carriers AT&T and Verizon agreed on Tuesday suspend the use of 5G networks at airports. As explained by the main executives of the airlines, activating this technology could be “a catastrophe”. Which raised the alarm and the immediate question: why are they dangerous?
“Please, please turn off your cell phones and electronic devices during takeoff and landing” was a widely heard message on airplanes a few years ago. Although this has changed over time, everything indicates that 5G interferes with airport communication channels between planes and control towers. Which can be very dangerous.
The airline industry has warned that the new network, which would allow consumers much faster Internet access, could interfere with sensitive aircraft instruments such as altimeters and significantly hamper low-visibility operations. The airlines called on Sunday “for 5G to be implemented throughout the country, except within the approximately 3.2 km of airport runways” on some key tracks.
The sore point is that to upgrade to these networks the phone companies have to move operations to a new band of radio frequencies called “Band C”. Last year, Verizon and AT&T spent a combined $67 billion acquiring broadband spectrum licenses. C needed to upgrade their networks to 5G, according to Forbes.
AT&T, one of the companies bidding for 5G. AFP Photo
But some airline regulators worry that aircraft radio altimeters, which measure how far above the ground a plane is to help pilots land their planes on low visibility situations and also operate on C-band frequencies, could be affected by 5G.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and telecom carriers agree that 5G and air travel can co-exist. In fact, they already do it in almost 40 countries.
The lobby of the telecommunications companies has been pointing out that there have been no accidents in other countries where 5G is operational and US airlines fly regularly to those countries.
However, the disagreement seems to be in a series of tests carried out that try to curb the immense power of the companies that handle communications.
The issue seemed to particularly affect the Boeing 777, a long-haul aircraft used by carriers around the world. Two Japanese companies expressly mentioned the model as being particularly affected by 5G signals when they announced cancellations and changes to their schedules.
what is 5G
5G networks and airport security. Reuters Photo
5G is the newest generation of cellular network, after 4G, which was introduced in late 2009 and is used in most cell phones in the world today.
At the simplest level, 1G enabled phone calls, 2G brought messaging, and 3G provided Internet access. Today, on 4G, users can download apps, stream videos, and more, with relative ease and speed.
The fifth generation is expected to deliver new levels of speed, making it possible, for example, to download a movie to one’s phone in seconds, and allowing more devices to connect to a network at once.
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