Continued issues from rollout of 5G
ALPA Pres. Joe DePete has sent strongly worded correspondence to the chair of the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The letter follows subcommittee hearings last week.
“Given that the agency legally tasked with oversight of the telecommunications industry [the FCC] completely failed to provide critical information relevant to the safety of the U.S. airspace system and voluntary dialogue by private sector companies did not begin until the precise time their actions posed catastrophic harm to public safety, it is clear there is a systemic failure of governance over the wireless industry’s use of spectrum, disclosure of information, and licensing. This necessitates a redesign of the government’s authority over these providers, including granting affected agencies, like the FAA, authority to reject or modify new or expanded spectrum applications, as well as the ability to directly interact with the FCC. The hearing provided damning insight into how broken the federal radio spectrum and licensing process is in relation to aviation safety and the need for immediate reform.”
DePete also wrote, “FCC not only failed to heed our concerns, but they willfully neglected to carry out their regulatory responsibilities and ask licensees for critical data needed to plan for launching 5G while maintaining aviation safety. This failure on the part of the FCC has resulted in uncertainty, complexity, and increased workload for every flight.” DePete stated FCC never asked the wireless industry for the required data for conducting safety risk mitigation assessments. He also stated that cost for retrofitting commercial aircraft with interference-resistant radar altimeters would easily cost $100,000--$150,000 per aircraft and the FAA could take up to four years to approve this new equipment.
Some of DePete’s strongest statements were directed at the CTIA, the Washington, D.C. advocacy group which represents wireless carriers. It provided an “inadequate level of meaningful data” to “evaluate the 5G signal impact on radar altimeters” and ignored concerns for aviation safety. “It appears that [5G C-band carriers] Verizon and AT&T are beginning to understand the need to share data for the advancement of [aviation] safety, even if their trade association, CTIA, does not.”
The letter further looked into the near-term future and looming additional stressors upon the NAS. “As we look forward to new entrants to the aviation system—remotely piloted aircraft systems and drones, advanced air mobility, hypersonic aircraft, and commercial space operations—we need to make sure that these entities are also not impacted by 5G interference. A thorough review and risk mitigation of the systems used by these stakeholders is also needed before allowing 5G in the C-Band to continue expansion.”
So significant issues persist, though different factors may see the greatest emphasis - especially cost of retrofit, as well as developing standards by FAA. Little doubt cost (retrofit), and standards (new), will impact one another. Left for some other forum is any effort to address, much less redress, the bureaucratic or interagency inertia or turf-protecting (notice, as SLF/attorney I have not said "incompetence") by which this set of issues hit the fan.