Wireless, aviation industries face off over chaotic 5G launch

A top House lawmaker called the U.S. government’s process of auctioning radio spectrum “completely broken” as wireless and aviation groups presented starkly different views of last month’s chaotic rollout of new 5G wireless service.

Representative Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in prepared remarks the Federal Communications Commission had no plan in place to deal with what he called well known safety issues.

A panel of witnesses appearing before the committee’s Aviation Subcommittee praised ongoing technical work between the two sides, but differed markedly on the potential risks to aviation and the impacts to the aviation system from the high-speed mobile phone service introduced Jan. 19.

Leaders of aviation-industry groups said the Federal Aviation Administration’s flight precautions were placing a heavy burden on pilots, who must now sift through scores of new restrictions that can vary by different runways at the same airport.

Pilots are forced “to perform extensive workarounds” that “we expect will be needed for the foreseeable future,” Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said in prepared remarks. “This is no way to run a railroad, and it’s certainly no way to operate the world’s safest air transportation system.”

New 5G service introduced by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. operates on frequencies that are close to those used by aircraft devices known as radar altimeters, which show how far a plane is off the ground.

The FAA says research shows that the 5G signals have the potential to interfere with the altimeters, which perform a wide variety of navigation and safety functions.

Meredith Attwell Baker, president and chief executive officer of the wireless industry trade group CTIA, called the evidence of interference “flawed.”

The FCC “conducted a rigorous analysis and found no harmful interference” from the C-band frequencies used for 5G, she said in her prepared remarks.

The FAA has cleared about 90% of aircraft to operate near 5G signals across the U.S., partly as a result of an agreement by the wireless companies to limit placement of cell towers near runways. At some major airports, including New York’s John F. Kennedy and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty, the percentage is only 81% because of the mix of aircraft, the agency said Wednesday.

Faye Malarkey Black, who heads the Regional Airline Association, said the smaller aircraft used by its members haven’t received as many FAA clearances, putting them at greater risk of flight cancellations if bad weather hits.

“Leaving dozens of airports and millions of passengers vulnerable to sweeping disruptions is unsustainable and unacceptable,” Black said in her prepared remarks.

The awkward deployment of 5G, which was twice delayed in recent weeks, was caused by FCC’s decision to approve it without “any concrete plan in place to safely deploy these technologies without interfering with aviation,” DeFazio said in his prepared opening statement for the hearing.

The lawmaker also revealed that the FAA had attempted to raise concerns about the potential for 5G radio interference earlier than was previously known.

DeFazio said the FAA “was ignored” in 2019 when it raised the issue with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Commerce Department branch responsible for coordinating federal airwaves policy.

In a September 2019 letter, the FAA asked the Commerce Department branch to carry its concerns about interference to the FCC, which at the time was considering rules for allocating the airwaves for 5G use. A search Wednesday of the FCC’s online record found no evidence the FAA’s point of view was relayed to the communications agency.

The letter showed the FAA raised concerns more than a year earlier than has previously been reported.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel was invited to testify but had a schedule conflict, DeFazio said.