The controversy of the 5G connection and airports: why does the United States cancel flights and in Europe there are no problems?

In aviation, safety is the top priority. That is why at the slightest suspicion of problems, flight cancellations occur. What is happening with the 5G connection in airports?

The wireless connections and airplanes they have never gotten along. For years we have had to turn off the mobile when boarding a plane, although now things have improved.

That is why we were surprised by yesterday’s news, in which it was confirmed the cancellation of numerous flights in the United States due to the implementation of the 5G connection at airports.

The news is surprising because in Europe there is no problem with the deployment of the 5G connection in areas where planes fly. What is the difference with the United States?

The telephone companies are angry with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, and have had to shut down 5G towers around various airports: “We have voluntarily agreed to temporarily postpone the lighting of a limited number of towers around certain airport runways.“, explains an AT&T spokesman Business Insider.

And the reproach arrives: “The aviation industry and the FAA have not used the 2 years they have had to responsibly plan for this deployment.“.

“We are frustrated by the FAA’s inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and urge it to do so in a timely manner.“continues the statement from AT&T.

The controversy is that the frequency spectrums of the planes and the 5G connection are too close, as explained by our colleague Andrea Gómez and Business Insider.

The radio spectrum of the 5G connection with its new Band C is located in the United States between the 3.7 GHz and the 3.98 GHz, while aircraft electronic altimeters use frequency ranges between 4,2 GHz y 4,4 GHz.

These altimeters are used to accurately know the distance to the ground, in a landing.

The airlines estimate that the difference between both frequencies is only 500 MHz. Under certain conditions both signals could interfere, producing errors that would prevent landing in low visibility conditions, causing flight delays and cancellations.

And why don’t these problems exist in Europe? The reason is that slightly different bands are used.

As explained by Orange to Business Insider Spain, in our country there is no problem because aircraft radars work above 4.2 GHz while operators use frequencies below 3.8 GHz.

Here are the calls guard bands between frequency ranges dedicated to different services, which makes interference between them impossible.

In addition, the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) tells Business Insider Spain that in our country the band used was different than in other countries, and there is no record of problems.

So it seems that, at least for now, we can rest easy. The current deployment of the 5G connection in Spain will not interfere with aircraft.