Choosing Between 5G and Safe Air Travel?

For what it's worth, 5G has seen more controversy than any other mobile standard in existence. From the laughable "5G causes COVID" sham, to other issues, the new standard has seen great public opposition. And now, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Aviation Association, two of the largest federal agencies in the US, have come head to head.

The clash has come in the light of Verizon and AT&T announcing their plans to roll out 5G over the C-band. For now, both the FCC and the FAA have an agreement over how 5G and air travel can coexist. The issue is the how.

A Blockbuster 5G Auction and A Gap in Communication

The story starts way back in February last year when the FCC held the C-band spectrum auction. Back then, Verizon invested heavily; spending $45.5 billion (Rs. 3.38 trillion) and buying 3,500 licenses across the US. The telco acquired an average of 160MHz spectrum across the entire US. Along with it, AT&T came in second by spending $23.4 billion (Rs. 1.74 trillion) for 1,621 licenses. Furthermore, T-Mobile spent $9.3 billion (Rs. 691.41 billion) on 142 licenses.

As for the valuable A Block C-band licenses, Verizon won most of those. The telco bought around 60% of those licenses, while AT&T walked away with around 40%. The FCC reported that this was a successful spectrum auction, with total spectrum being sold for $81.114 billion (Rs. 6.03 trillion).

Following up with the hefty investment, Verizon and AT&T, two of the largest spenders, had announced their plans in December to launch 5G services over C-band on 5th January. However, following an emergency petition by Airlines for America, the companies have volunteered to hold on for another two weeks. Incidentally, the companies had also volunteered to postpone rollout for a month in November.

However, this reflects a huge gap in communication between the FCC and the FAA. Since the former did not bother to consult the FAA before selling off a prized asset; that is apparent by the amount of money the FCC has made. This has led both the FCC and the FAA to come in each other's crosshairs.

The FAA's Airworthiness Directives

The FAA released a set of Airworthiness Directives on December 9 last year. The AD highlighted the potential of C-band 5G rollout interfering with an airliner's radio altimeter. The C-band spectrum lies between 3.7 and 3.98 GHz. Since it has more range than mmWave, this mid-band spectrum will provide nationwide coverage for the telcos. Here's the catch; the radio altimeters in the airplanes operate at 4.2-4.4 GHz, separated only by 220 MHz from the C-band.

The FAA, in the directives, said, "Although the FAA has determined the operations immediately at risk are those requiring a radio altimeter to land in low visibility conditions, a wide range of other automated safety systems rely on radio altimeter data". The federal agency also warned that any interference to the altimeter can make other systems in the aircraft behave unexpectedly.

It also cited a report by the non-profit Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) that reached a stark conclusion; “the results presented in this report reveal a major risk that 5G telecommunications systems in the 3.7–3.98 GHz band will cause harmful interference to radar altimeters on all types of civil aircraft—including commercial transport airplanes; business, regional, and general aviation airplanes; and both transport and general aviation helicopters".

"The results of the study performed clearly indicate that this risk is widespread and has the potential for broad impacts to aviation operations in the United States, including the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations,” the FAA said.

But the Telecom industry stays unconvinced. Earlier this year, Meredith Attwell Baker, President, CTIA, called 5G and airline safety “the FAA’s false choice” in an op-ed for Morning Consult. “Within the nearly 40 countries operating 5G in the C-Band today, there is not a single report of 5G causing harmful interference with air traffic of any kind,” she wrote.

The FAA has said that other countries have taken measures, such as lower power levels around airports. Canada, for example, has restricted C-Band use near airports. “We are reviewing the latest letter from the wireless companies on how to mitigate interference from 5G C-Band transmissions,” according to a statement from the FAA.

The Postponements

After months of preparation, Verizon and AT&T were ready to roll out 5G using C-band on 5th December. However, due to FAA concerns about the interference, the telcos agreed to a 30-day delay. After that, on New Year's Eve, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson wrote a letter to the CEOs of AT&T and Verizon, asking for yet another extension.

The letter did recognize the telcos' efforts and investments, "at the same time, absent further action, the economic stakes for the aviation industry and the disruptions the traveling public would face from commercial launch of C-Band service on January 5 are significant, particularly with the ongoing stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic," wrote Buttigieg and Dickson.

This, of course, irked the telcos. Both the companies insisted that the deployment will not interfere with any airplane equipment. However, knowing that if they resisted the federal government can step in, they volunteered for another two weeks' extension. Everyone knows that while currently, the negotiations are voluntary, this could easily spill into courtrooms.

What's more, the companies also agreed to further limit the range of spectrum they use until July 5, 2022. Interestingly, France has adopted this more generous spectrum buffer as well.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday released a statement characterizing the new agreement as “a significant step in the right direction.” He also hinted at the latest delay being the last. President Biden said, “this agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19th.”

The Goldilocks Frequency

For a refresher, 5G can work on three brackets of frequencies, the low-band, the mid-band and the mmWave. The C-band, falling in the mid-band bracket, has been called that because it exists in a so-called "sweet spot" for 5G. The frequency band has longer range than the ultra-fast mmWave spectrum. However, it has been largely confined to cities and sporting venues. What's more, C-band is much faster than the low-band spectrum.

For the telecoms industry, C-Band is a finite and extremely valuable resource. During the initial 5G rollout in the US a year ago, only large TV satellites could use C-band; the telcos did not have any access to the spectrum. However, the FCC reallocated the frequency to telecoms industry, and then sold the spectrum shortly thereafter.

However, for several years, the aviation industry has been using C-band frequencies to operate radio altimeters. The altimeters measure the distance between a plane and the ground. Therefore, they play a crucial role in allowing airplanes to land in low-visibility conditions, where the pilot can't eyeball the distance.

There are no doubts that the C-band remains crucial for a network the scale of a country. However, risking millions of lives for a faster internet does not seem like the best of trades. But does the choice even exist?

Is There a Choice?

The FAA itself has come out and said that the issue does not require any "immediate action". However, it still wants to .run tests just to make sure. And as Meredith Attwell Baker said, no country has reported any issues because of 5G deployment over C-band.

But if there is a risk, it must be eliminated. And as such, the telcos have held on till 19th January, which gives time to the FAA to conduct the tests. However, the FAA has said that it might require till March to finish testing, and the matter looks sure to reach the courtrooms if the federal government decides to step in. That will mean that neither the FAA nor the FCC will get what it wants, and will lead to unnecessary delays.

In all, while the safety of the people is of a paramount importance, there is almost no evidence to suggest that C-band 5G causes any harm. Therefore, the FAA, to avoid lenghtly courtroom procedures, must finish its testing by 19th January. If President Biden has come out and said that he looks forward to the 5G rollout on that day, then that is reason to believe that the FAA will finish its testing by then.

Choosing between 5G and safe air travel is not a choice people thought they will have to make. Yet, here we are. Whether it is a "false choice" or not is a matter of debate, but for now, the US telecoms industry waits for the FAA to bring good news.