No quick fix for 5G civil aviation disruption

On Jan 19, several international airlines suspended their flights to the US, due to uncertainty about whether the launch of 5G phone services in the United States would interfere with the radar altimeters that pilots use to land in low visibility.

That's because the US 5G networks run on 3.70-3.98 GHz radio waves, which is too near to the 4.2-4.4 GHz that civil flights use for the radar altimeters.
AT&T and Verizon have announced that they have delayed activating 5G on some towers around certain airports.

The alarm was raised last year. In October, the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics in the US released a report saying that the 3.70-3.98 GHz used for US 5G technology might pose harmful interference to the radar height devices of civil flights. Yet AT&T and Verizon insisted their systems were OK and would be launched on schedule.

On Dec 31, the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration co-signed a letter to the two telecom giants, asking them to delay launching their 5G networks, but the latter insisted on going ahead with their rollouts. The quarrel continues and that's why the flights have been suspended and the 5G network delayed.

The FAA has said that if the 5G networks near airports are activated, as many as 6,834 civil fixed-wing planes and 1,828 civil helicopters could face delays and flight disruptions.

An AT&T spokesperson said: "We are disappointed that the FAA cannot do what nearly 40 countries have already done, which is to not interrupt aviation."

But the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents 61,000 pilots from 38 US and Canadian airlines, has criticized both sides for not resolving the problem earlier and called for a "permanent solution".

The point is that neither party is willing to pay to plug the safety holes to avoid accidents or to take the responsibility should there be an accident, despite these dangers being caused by their shortsightedness, greed and miscalculation.

If both sides stick to their guns, the quarrel will only drag on and the risks will remain.

- Beijing News