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Old 23rd Jan 2022, 08:30
  #133 (permalink)  
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History likes often to repeat itself. I am unfortunately old enough to remember a very similar issue with ILS in the end of the 90s. Way before RNP and GPS it had been decided at ICAO level in 1978 that MLS would replace ILS by 2000 and ILS would be decommissioned by 2010. This was pushed by the US/FAA at the time as they manufactured the MLS , but in between GPS and WAAS came up and the US changed their minds, we know the rest and the fate of MLS.. But one interesting story happened : A guy (a single person if I remember correctly) in the early 90s, read that ILS was to be decommissioned by 2010 , its frequencies could be released , and there was huge pressure from commercial radios to extend the FM band , of which ILS is just adjacent .So he wrote to the ITU and the frequencies were released to ITU, which started to allocate the ILS frequencies to commercial users..
This was only discovered 10 years or so later and panic followed, in a similar situation s today with 5 G. It took great efforts and a couple of years. to secure the ILS frequencies back. The fact that Commercial radio were not expanding anymore as foreseen in the 90's helped ..

The difference with 5G here, as I understood it, is that the frequencies between 5G and RA are close to each other within the same band , but are separated, It is the use at the border of the frequencies and the eventual overlaps that are the issue. But the other way around too. 5G will be used for drones, cars, autonomous construction ( read crane operations) , etc.. and safety critical as well with loss of life possibilities, and those brand new systems are digital and can probably maintain the correct frequencies, which is not the case of the old technology used in outdated avionics. most of us carry. So the logical solution would be a modern updated RA module that would keep its own frequency accurately. That as I understand unfortunately will take time and will not be cheap.
Some other countries have introduced a large buffer between the 2 frequencies allocation hoping it will avoid the issue, we will see if that works, because the problem is not 5G is the old RA technology.
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