Understanding The 5G Issue For U.S. Airlines And How To Resolve It

There has been a lot of news about 5G wireless service affecting the U.S. airlines. The airlines, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and leading pilot groups have all raised caution flags due to potential disruptions. On the wireless company side, they have said they don’t expect problems and, at least temporarily, have not turned on the 5G signals near the most congested U.S. airports.

How did we get to this position, and does a 5G signal really put airline flights at risk? Understanding this issue isn’t easy when some media use headlines like “Why Your 5G Phone Concerns The Airlines.” The issues driving this standoff have been known for years and have been addressed successfully in different ways in Europe. Here is a practical framework toward a solution:

Why There Is A Conflict

The implementation of 5G wireless is a boon for users and the economy. The 5G standard is not exactly that — 5G is defined differently depending on where you are. In the U.S., we define 5G as the frequency range from 3.7GHz to 3.98GHz. In Europe, 5G is defined as the range from 3.4GHz to 3.8GHz. This may seem like a small difference, but in part this defines the conflict between airlines and the wireless services. That’s because radio altimeters, the equipment on most modern modern airplanes used for multiple reasons, operate at frequencies starting at 4.2GHz.

The airlines, along with the FAA, are concerned that the upper end of the 5G range and the lower end of the radio altimeter range are too close for comfort. The risk is not that the radio altimeters will stop working, The risk is that they might intercept a signal from a 5G tower and interpret that as a bounce-back, thus possibly resulting in an erroneous output. The risk of this is very small, but in airline safety there is no reason to take even a very small risk when the consequences can be so disastrous.

How We Got To This Point

There has been continual evolution in the speed for wireless services since the world was at 1G. The push for 5G was driven by a number of things, including the explosion of connected devices. This network, know as the Internet of Things (IoT), covers devices we all now depend on from fitness watches to Alexa to connected coffee makers. When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the frequency bands for 5G, it was well aware of uses in the surrounding frequency ranges. The FAA, early in this process, pointed out the potential conflict of aircraft frequency use but the FCC pushed ahead and defined a range that they felt was far enough away for safety. The problem here is that the FCC is not responsible for airline safety, while the FAA is.

Why The Airline View Will Drive The Solution

Think about this: If a drug manufacturer said a certain medication was safe and effective, but your doctor, the FDA, and almost every other doctor in the U.S. said it might not be safe, would you take it? Some people might. The risk in that case is that possibly that medication would harm you., Now, translate this scenario to a plane carrying 180 people about to land at NY’s LaGuardia airport. Should any government official, in the FCC or the FAA, accept even the slightest possibility that this landing could be comprised for 5G cell service? Of course not, which is why the airline view will ultimately drive the solution to this problem.

The airlines, its trade group Airlines for America (A4A), and the FAA all want a positive solution. Everyone wants fast cell service, and everyone wants safe airlines. The key is communication, as A4A President Nick Calio has clearly stated. By working together, the parties involved, lead by the airlines and the FAA, will come to a good conclusion.

Pathway To Resolution

There are two ways to solve this problem on a permanent basis. One would be on the cell side, and this would mean limiting the upper end of the 5G frequency (as Europe does) or lowering the power somewhat at towers near busy airports. This action would further distance the aircraft’s radio altimeters from any potential 5G conflict when it has the most risk of causing a catastrophic event. This could happen quickly, but the wireless companies would have to agree and the FAA would have to agree that the changes move the risk into an acceptable safety envelope. This action requires increased collaboration between the FAA and FCC, primarily.

A future potential solution is that aircraft and equipment manufacturers  could install a filtering device to airplanes that would detect the 5G signal separate from the radio altimeter signal, and ignore the 5G signal. Keeping this solution at the manufactures’ level makes sense for many reasons, including conflicts with other equipment. Also, 5G isn’t the end of the wireless frontier. Designing a long-term solution that will work on 6G and more is a longer-term engineering process. Trying to retrofit a make-shift solution into existing aircraft would create significant expense and disruption. Any planes not filtered would be limited in their operations, causing ongoing delays and cancellations. The FAA would still need to agree that a filtered solution meets an acceptable safety threshold before the near-airport towers could be operated just like any other 5G cell tower. The simpler solution of narrowing the band slightly, reducing the power, or just working together to test until comfortable is the best course of action.

It’s somewhat embarrassing for our country that we’ve gotten into this situation. We haven’t learned a new fact in the last few weeks. We’ve just had to step up to the fact that people who have disagreed up until now must come to a final resolution. Thankfully, we have strong leadership in our U.S. airlines and the FAA that will hold the line on safety as we all gain the benefits from 5G.