The latest in the air travel industry is 5G, which promises to bring a new era of connectivity and convenience. Airlines are scrambling to retool their operations for this next-generation network while making sure they don’t miss out on any money while they’re at it.
The “5g airlines news” is a recent development in the airline industry. 5G technology will allow for more efficient and faster data transfers, which means that passengers may be able to utilize their phones during flights.
What’s the Deal With Airlines And 5G?
on January 19, 2022 by Gary Leff
Several overseas airlines have halted Boeing 777 routes to the United States due to worries about whether the FAA would let them to land in the United States under normal circumstances or whether aircraft would be forced to divert due to technical issues. Airlines in the United States submitted diversion plans for certain flights in the event that their aircraft were not permitted to land at key U.S. airports where 5G will be deployed. The launch of 5G services has also been pushed back.
Depending on who you ask, it’s either a made-up non-issue or the end of the world as we know it. The concern is that C-band 5G at the power and frequency that will be utilized in the United States would confuse radio altimeters in airplanes, causing uncertainty about the plane’s height and causing difficulties for other systems in some aircraft, such as Boeing 777s. What exactly is going on here?
- 5G should be fine. 5G rollout has been figured out in Europe without a conflict with aircraft altimeters, and there’s even a bigger frequency buffer in the U.S. So the band gap is enough that altimeters shouldn’t have a problem, but there may be some limited circumstances where they do anyway because of the specific different frequencies being used here. The altimeters needed to be updated, and weren’t. We don’t actually know this will be an issue, there’s some very limited data suggesting it could be. And aviation doesn’t take even small risks.
- There’s a potential problem with the altimeters which don’t seem to be masking out of band signals, since there wasn’t anything which would have been a conflict with the signal range they used 40 years ago when their standards were put in place. So there was no reason to add cost and complexity. But this should all have been dealt with years ago and wasn’t.
- Everyone closed their eyes and played chicken. 5G rollout has been known for years, with published specifications, and at the last minute there’s a game of chicken. There’s plenty of data suggesting this would be fine, and the government agency in charge (FCC) signed off, which telecomm agencies relied on in spending $80.9 billion in the government auction which gives them the right to roll out 5G using specs determined by the feds.
- Turf war between regulatory agencies, with the FAA raising its concerns at the last minute. They’ll say that there were issues noted earlier but that’s barely true in the most technical of senses. But the FAA has a hammer, which is the ability to regulate airlines in an extreme manner. And no one wants to see major disruption to aviation, and no one wants to do anything that will lead them to be blamed for an accident (even if it turns out to have nothing to do with 5G). And the disruption of FAA restrictions is massive. As American Airlines Chairman Doug Parker told employees earlier this month,
There were two days in December that we could have flown Cat 1 Dallas and DFW wouldn’t have opened until 10 a.m., if only we could have flown Cat 1 Dallas.
That’s 400 cancellations if DFW doesn’t open until 10 a.m. And that’s assuming we were aware of it the night before. That is, assuming we don’t start launching aircraft and then divert… if we don’t cancel 400 mainline flights throughout this ordeal. Those were two very wonderful days of operations.
… Other sections of the aircraft make use of the altimeter… It has something to do with the heads-up display. If you’re worried about the usage of the altimater, we’re not going to be flying 777-300s into any impacted airport because Boeing has it connected to…help with tail strikes on the 777-300s, all kinds of stuff.
Meanwhile, the FCC is aware that there has been enough warning, that its analyses indicate that everything should be OK, and that it has little compassion for engineers who have ignored concerns they may have had about mission-critical systems for years.
So, what happens after that? Everyone finds a workaround for a restricted number of flights and airports while deferring substantial expenses.
Existing altimeters will need to be retrofitted, and in some cases, replaced. We don’t know whether current altimeters are at danger of showing incorrect altitude or other concerns since the FAA hasn’t done much research on the subject in recent years. They are now requesting more time.
The public benefits greatly from 5G, and the costs of retrofitting are much less than the value of the service. This is without a shadow of a doubt. But there’s also a battle over ‘who pays,’ not simply for time. And a crisis may make it easier to persuade the government to pay, maybe from a piece of the $80 billion raised from the spectrum sale.
This conclusion from reader Steve seems right to me, who notes that we probably should agree to pay for altimeter upgrades out of auction proceeds to ratchet down the rhetoric.
Nobody wants to be the one to decide that the risks with current altimeters are minor and end up with a crash, even if it later turns out to be unrelated to this issue, and since shutting down 5G is a shifted cost (i.e. it does not fall on the airlines), they will scream for as much as they can, arguing that the inconvenience of not having faster cellphones is outweighed by not killing people (really the remote chance of killing people).
The best solution is a fast-track program that equips altimeters with inline filters and replaces those that don’t. That would be a boost to any firms with an approved solution since all they’d have to do now is scale up manufacturing, but even that would take months, so it’ll come down to how much 5G coverage the airlines/Boeing and the cell companies can agree on.
Given each side’s political clout, this may be a fascinating battle to watch. I’m sure any reasonable decision making will be lost, and it avoids the underlying issue, which is why, despite the fact that these frequencies have been known for years, these tests were only conducted little over a year ago, and the matter is just now coming to a head.
More From the Wing’s Perspective
The “5g airlines fox news” is a question that has been asked by many people. What’s going on between airlines and 5G?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the problem with 5G and the airlines?
A: The current 5G technology struggles to transmit data quickly enough, and the higher bandwidths of future generations will create new problems for airlines.
What is 5G in flight?
A: 5G is the fifth generation of wireless networks. It uses a different type of radio frequency than previous generations, and can deliver speeds up to five times faster than 4G LTE cellular networks.
What is 5G deployment?
A: 5G deployment is the idea of a new type of wireless technology that promises to provide faster internet, more reliable and frequent data connectivity.
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