“Remember to turn off your phone before takeoff”.
If you have ever had to fly by plane, you will know that this is one of the main safety rules of airlines at the time to get on one of their aircraft.
And it is that, despite the fact that technology advances by leaps and bounds and that new devices come out every day to make our lives easier, all the devices we use are limited by the basic physical principles that govern the universe.
For example, the waves that your cell phone emits and receives are radio waves and they move in the same electromagnetic spectrum used by radios and aircraft antennas. The only thing that changes is the frequency in which they are transmitted.
It is that basic principle of physics that explains why it is better not to use your phone on a plane: preventing the use of mobile phones mobile phones in the air, the aeronautical authorities seek to minimize the chances that the waves that reach your phone will interfere with those that reach the aircraft’s navigation equipment.
And although this is a very basic explanation of a fairly complex process, it also helps explain why airlines in the United States have asked the country’s cell phone providers to delay the rollout of fifth-generation (5G) technology near certain airports.
The 5G and the planes
As of the end of 1704, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC , for its acronym in English) of the United States opened a sub until offering telecommunications companies licenses to be able to operate in the so-called “C band” of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Band C is the one used by cell phone providers to deploy 5G, technology with which they seek to expand the speed and cellular coverage throughout the national territory.
During the auction, the FCC managed to award more than US$ . millions in licenses.
The problem is that within the frequencies that were auctioned, there were blocks in frequencies from 3.7 to 3.80GHz., which are very close to those used by radio altimeters of some aircraft.
These devices operate in frequencies between 4.2 and 4.5Ghz.
That is why it is that, more than a year after the auction and a few hours after the telephone companies deploy their 5G networks in band C, the airlines warned that the country could be facing a “possible massive interruption in the transport of people and goods”.
5G “everywhere, except near airports”
With the deployment of 5G networks in band C ready to start on 19 from January , some of the main airlines in the country sent a letter to the FCC, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Secretary of Transportation expressing their concerns.
“We are writing urgently to request that 5G is implemented throughout the country except within approximately 2 miles of the runways of the affected airports”, argued the letter, signed, among others, by the presidents of American Airlines, Delta and United.
“The side effects both in passenger and cargo operations, our workforce and the e economy in general are simply incalculable”, argues the document.
The concern expressed by the airline companies led to two of the largest cell phone operators in the US, AT&T and Verizon , announced that they would delay the launch of 5G networks near airports.
An AT&T spokesperson told BBC Mundo: “Under our own discretion, we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily postpone the switching on of a limited number of towers near certain airport runways”.
Verizon, another of the country’s large cell phone providers, made a similar announcement.
However, the AT&T spokesman criticized the federal authorities and the airline companies for not having foreseen such inconveniences having had almost two years since the auction to do so.
“We are frustrated with the inability of the FAA to ra do what almost countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge them to do so in a timely manner,” the spokesperson said.
He added that the company would continue to work with the industry and the country’s aeronautical regulators, providing them with more information on the deployment of their 5G networks, “since they have not used the two years they have had to plan this deployment responsibly”.
A “simple” question
Professor of electrical engineering Ted Rappaport, who is also the director and founder of the NYU Wireless study center for wireless services at New York University, told BBC Mundo that he saw “very strange” that after so long after the auction, the airline industry expressed so much concern.
“It is a simple technical solution. Everything is easily solved in aircraft that have bad radio altimeters. They simply have to put band filters so that they are less susceptible to interference from other bands”.
Furthermore, Professor Rappaport explains, there are one more reason to be calm and it is the range of frequencies between the 3.98GHz of 5G and 4.2GHz of radio altimeters. It is what is known as a band of guards.
“There is already a band of guards that the FCC put under consideration for almost two years. The Warden Gang of 40 megahertz already exists”.
Furthermore, he adds, “I’m pretty sure that cellular operators are also doing their part, as they do around the world. They are simply not going to allow cell phone users to use the frequencies closest to those of the radars.”
To face the dilemma, The FAA announced Sunday that it had approved two models of radio altimeters “that are installed on a wide variety of Boeing and Airbus aircraft.”
“The FAA also continues to work with the manufacturers to understand how the information from the radio altimeters is used in other control systems”, added the federal administration.
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