US Could Learn From Canada C-Band Airport Limit
One temporary solution that could allow Verizon and AT&T to turn on their C-band base stations in January, as now planned, would be to provide protection near airports, industry and government officials told us. But it’s unclear whether that would be enough to address FAA and aviation industry concerns.
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Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada last week required protection for aircraft as part of C-band deployments. ISED will require exclusion and protection zones aimed at mitigating interference to aircraft around runways where automated landing is authorized. It imposed a national antenna down-tilt requirement protecting aircraft used in low altitude military operations, search and rescue operations, and medical evacuations.
Verizon and AT&T didn’t comment Friday. Last week, a Verizon executive noted most deployments aren’t near airports, which he said would cause the biggest concerns (see 2111150071).
“Carve-outs around airports would be the most expeditious solution to separate fact from fiction,” said Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner. “It is interesting that European aviation authorities can manage 5G without drama, but FAA appears to have a problem,” said John Strand of Strand Consult.
Commissioner Brendan Carr said the FCC shouldn’t backtrack on the C band. “There’s a broader trend at play here” whether it's DOD on Ligado, the Department of Transportation on 5.9 GHz, or NOAA on 24 GHz, Carr told reporters Thursday. “You’ve got a lot of entities out there that are engaging in some sort of spectrum fiefdom.” Since the 1930s, the FCC has been “the centralized authority” on spectrum, he said: “Everyone gets a seat at the table. Everyone gets to submit their information. Then, when the FCC reaches a final decision, that’s the end of the process, not the beginning of a new ancillary process.”
Carr has seen no evidence “that suggests … there’s a need to deviate from the decision that we reached.” He said he’s “not inclined to add additional actions after the FCC’s process has run.”
Another potential solution would be filters to protect aircraft safety equipment. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel was asked Thursday about who would bear that cost, but she said she had no details to share.
“Historically it appears that aviation actors have not wanted to pay for equipment upgrades,” Steffen Ring, CEO of Ring Advocacy, blogged last week. FAA’s recent bulletin on C-band safety (see 2111030046) “may be interpreted as a means to make the mobile industry pay instead,” Ring said: “Since neither group likely finds such an option reasonable, it seems that going forward there should be an incentive to publish technical altimeter specifications such that all stakeholders can make needed assessments.”
Aviation groups declined comment. A spokesperson for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) referred us to the Canadian development.
Aviation groups and companies, including the Aerospace Industry Association, IATA, Boeing, Collins Aerospace and Garmin, countered wireless industry arguments on the negative effects on 5G, in a filing posted Friday in FCC docket 18-122. “Since October 2017, concerns have been expressed regarding the potential for the public to be put at risk due to radio altimeters being harmfully interfered with by 5G cellular service” in the C band, the groups said: “The motivation was not to prevent the U.S. from benefiting from 5G, but rather to assure public safety from an interference issue not fully considered by the Commission in its rulemaking reallocating this frequency band.”
While the aviation industry has sought to work with wireless carriers, CTIA has “chosen to select out-of-context fragments of the extensive aviation technical work and use minor points to try to cast doubt on an analysis that clearly shows 5G transmissions in this band are a flight safety threat that will require severe flight limitations,” the filing said. CTIA didn’t immediately comment. Major telecom trade associations asked the White House Thursday to make sure C-band questions are resolved by Jan. 5 (see 2111180047), when Verizon and AT&T plan to start using the band for 5G (see 2111040042).