Airlines, aircraft manufacturers and regulators have voiced concerns about possible interference issues between 5G and aircraft navigation tools for nearly two years. Their doubts are not new.
What is at issue is on the one hand the bandwidth used by 5G, between 3.7 and 4 GHz, and on the other, that used for aircraft radio altimeters, necessary for landings in the wrong time, between 4.2 and 4.4 GHz. Their spectrum is very close and could cause malfunctions on many electronic systems essential for the proper functioning of airplanes.
In France, the precautionary principle requires the general directorate of civil aviation to ask telephone operators to clamp down their relay antennas, near 17 airports, and crews to enforce the instructions to passengers to turn off their phones. Instructions that are not respected all the time.
Because what worries what worries civil aviation is that the active technology of 5G comes to point its beam directly at the 5G mobiles on board the plane, without being able to confirm or deny it for the moment. It is for this reason that the DGAC issues a simple recommendation and not a regulatory obligation.
In the United States, on the other hand, doubts about the more powerful G5, and whose frequency band is even closer, have turned into a standoff between airlines and operators AT&T and Verizon. The companies are threatening to take the case to court. Because despite the warning from the FAA, American civil aviation, the two operators want to use these new frequency bands as quickly as possible, which they paid at a high price last February, following a call for tens of billions of dollars in offers.
The commissioning of these new frequencies has already been postponed three times, the last to date, to January 19. But the FAA, pushed by Airbus and Boeing wants more time to verify that 5G and civil aviation can coexist without endangering flight safety. At the same time, it issued new directives limiting the use of radio altimeters during 4/3 approaches, while automatic during degraded weather conditions.
US airlines have expressed concern over the potential costs incurred, and called on the authorities to find a solution quickly.