FAA Soon Details Impact Of 5G Services On Sensitive Devices On Commercial Airplanes

Planes that are about to land are very vulnerable to 5G signals. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US issued a notice early Thursday, January 13, detailing the potential impact of new 5G wireless services on sensitive aircraft electronics.

The FAA has been in talks with aircraft manufacturers, airlines and wireless carriers to mitigate the impact of the new wireless service that will begin January 19. The FAA has warned that potential interference could impact sensitive aircraft instruments such as the altimeter.

AT&T and Verizon Communications, which won nearly all of C-Band spectrum in an $80 billion auction last year, agreed on Jan. 3 to buffer a zone of about 50 airports to reduce the risk of interference. They also agreed to postpone the deployment for two weeks, to avoid an aviation safety deadlock.

The FAA said it would publish what is known as a Notice for Air Missions at midnight Thursday offering details on "aircraft with an untested altimeter or requiring retrofitting or replacement will not be able to make low-visibility landings where 5G is deployed."

Among the notices are details on how instrument approaches at major airports are affected. The FAA has determined that some GPS-guided approaches will continue to be possible at certain airports such as Miami and Phoenix.

As quoted by Reuters, the FAA said on Wednesday, January 12, that it "looks forward to providing an update soon on the estimated percentage of commercial aircraft equipped with altimeters that can operate reliably and accurately in the C-Band 5G environment."

The wireless industry is providing additional transmitter location data and the FAA said it was able to determine that in the initial deployment of 5G, aircraft would be able to land safely in low-visibility conditions on multiple runways without restrictions.