AT&T delays turning on 5G towers near
some US airport runways over airlines'
fears of 'catastrophic disruption': 'Frustrated'
telecoms giant attacks FAA and aviation
industry for wasting 'the two years they've
had to responsibly plan'
Daily Mail (UK),
by
Ronny Reyes
Original Article
Posted By: Ribicon,
1/18/2022 1:48:37 PM
AT&T has reluctantly agreed to delay the launch of its C-band 5G technology after the FAA and pilots unions threatened to cancel hundreds of flights over fears the roll-out would make it unsafe to fly, and Verizon is being urged by the White House to follow suit in order to avoid thousands of flights being canceled tomorrow.
The new technology was due to launch around the US on Wednesday January 19th, a deadline that has been in the making for two years. To launch, AT&T and Verizon towers that emit the signals necessary to power it were due to be switched on.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Ribicon 1/18/2022 1:50:31 PM (No. 1042896)
Daily Mail's main page features the celebrated Mayor Butt in the graphic, adding that he's nowhere to be found. Maybe cruising a highway rest stop toilet, as one does in his community? FTA: "Transport Secretary Buttigieg has yet to make a public statement about the issue ahead of Wednesday's rollout."
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
thomthomp 1/18/2022 2:08:18 PM (No. 1042918)
Gee, since it's ATT that wants to add new technology maybe it should be THEIR responsibility to make sure it works with the existing stuff.
But in their defense working with a bureaucracy like the FAA can't be easy. The FAA has spent years and billions trying unsuccessfully to update the traffic control sytem.
7 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 1/18/2022 2:12:33 PM (No. 1042926)
FTA; " . . . telecoms giant attacks FAA and aviation industry for wasting 'the two years they've had to responsibly plan' . . . "
Hey - - they've been busy - - doing important things - - like - - ummm, like - - well - - they've been busy!
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Starlifter Nav 1/18/2022 2:21:16 PM (No. 1042941)
Maybe the radar altimeters; more likely ILS systems.
Good old fashioned pressure altimeter set to local altimeter setting. Problem solved.
3 people like this.
The key demographic here is 'pilot unions'. There is currently zero evidence that 5G interferes with radio altimeters, despite being in use in over 40 other nations. Verizon and AT&T have both said that they will not even be moving into the 4.2 - 4.4GHz bands for several years.
Why did FCC auction off those frequencies in the first place if there was an issue? Didn't someone bother to pull their heads from their arses long enough to find out before selling $80 billion to Verizon and AT&T? Have any real world tests been done on this, or is this simply another example of a union holding America hostage over some idiotic perceived threat that doesn't exist?
8 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
skacmar 1/18/2022 2:27:12 PM (No. 1042948)
Once again, overpaid Washington DC bureaucrats drop the ball. Like their fearful leader Biden with the Covid test shortage, apparently nobody in the FAA saw this coming even though everyone knew about it for years. Now the FAA look foolish, airlines are in danger, and everyone is finger pointing but nobody is taking responsibility. Of course, Sec of Transportation is home, taking care of his newly purchased babies. I look for the Biden administration to blame the Trump administration to absolve themselves of any responsibility for this newest Biden debacle.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Ribicon 1/18/2022 3:10:50 PM (No. 1042975)
Also, remember that corporate profits are backed by the full faith and credit of the US taxpayers, so any added costs will be shunted onto us using some shallow pretext.
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
BarryNo 1/18/2022 3:29:22 PM (No. 1043000)
The telecoms can f**k off!!. They had years to find and use alternative bands that didn't interfere with existing technologies the airlines were using. Or negotiate with the airlines to come to a synthesis. But, NOOooo... Telecoms own the bands!!
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Vesicant 1/18/2022 3:44:20 PM (No. 1043018)
If 5G at 3.7 GHz to 3.96 GHz is "too close" to radar altimeters at 4.2 GHz to 4.4 GHz, then so are home microwave ovens at 2.4 GHz. Gonna ban my burrito warmer are you FAA? Radar altimeters and 5G have completely different modulation techniques. Are the airlines and the FAA seriously trying to tell me they can't tell the difference, or that their input bandpass filters are too wide for the 6 GHz difference between 5G and their altimeters? Yeah, no. Two years to do nothing. Is anybody surprised?
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
virbots 1/18/2022 4:03:19 PM (No. 1043034)
Sounds like the concerns are based on pure speculation. Couldn't they do some kind of experiment to see if there actually *is* interference?
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
MindMadeUp 1/18/2022 5:04:26 PM (No. 1043076)
Give 'em a break; it takes time. The bureaucracy was trying to decide if 5G is racist, white supremacist technology or is OK because it will be useful in stealing elections.
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
mc squared 1/18/2022 6:02:08 PM (No. 1043121)
Fear not. We have an agency that since 1934 has been in charge of frequencies to prevent interference. Most of those appointed couldn't work an AM radio. They're politicians.
4 people like this.
#9–That‘s what I don’t get. The cell carriers pack channels as close together as desired bandwidth allows and use FM and PM. The transmitters have to be very precise or they lose bandwidth. The cell transmitters also almost certainly have low-pass filters after the finals to prevent spurious transmissions and harmonics.
A radar altimeter uses pulsed linear FM and then mixes transmitted and received to get frequency difference. Surely the radars have band-pass filters to limit the transmitter to the range of the “whistle,” or at least LPFs. If the BPFs aren’t good enough, it should be a simple matter to put a sharp high-pass filter at 4 or 4.1 GHz between the radar antenna and the receiver.
0 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Penney 1/18/2022 7:13:07 PM (No. 1043223)
ATT seems to be without integrity in leadership these days as bad choices keep surfacing. First they want to drop Direct TV's OANN and now this?!
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
toddh 1/19/2022 11:35:18 AM (No. 1043964)
One does not simply add a filter to an installed RALT.
If that's the chosen solution, it would mean *replacing* a large number of the tens of thousands of installed radar altimeters active over the US. (Microsoft's tool says I cannot just put Windows 11 on this computer. I need to replace this computer if I want to run W11. Same deal.)
It's not like 5G doesn't have lots of other bands. I, for one, can't believe people are so addicted to watching movies on tiny screens that they'd be willing to potentially degrade air safety - lifesaving GPWS! - to watch a CGI raccoon save the galaxy again. So we have regions of slightly-degraded cell service near airports. Truly, a monumental sacrifice. I weep for the children.
2 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Ribicon"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Comments:
USA can't get it together on something that had prearranged timelines, but our foreign enemies had better watch out because we've got the most trans and gay friendly fighting force the world has ever seen, and can pirouette on a dime if need be.