Was Juhi Chawla partly right about 5G safety concerns? Flights to US suspended after 5G rollout
Several airlines have canceled or rescheduled their flights to the USA after the rollout of 5G overs fears that the C-band being used for the rollout by telecom operators AT&T and Verizon may interfere with key flight safety systems.
Juhi Chawla had filed a petition in Supreme Court in June last year claiming that it could cause immense damage to the environment, but her plea was dismissed as a publicity stunt and the court slapped her with a fine. Well, her concerns may be partly true, many airlines have either canceled or rescheduled their flights to the USA after the rollout of 5G their by Verizon and AT&T over concerns of interference with key aircraft safety parameters.
Air India, Emirates, Japan airlines are some of the air carriers that are suspending, rescheduling, and dropping some routes to the USA. Boeing had earlier warned airlines about the interference. 5G has been rolled out in more than 50 countries internationally but the USA is the only country where airlines are facing a problem due to the use of C-band by telecom operators.
Frequencies within the C-band are quite near to the airwaves used by aircraft for key safety equipment like an altimeter. The altimeter tracks the altitude, helps in low visibility landing, and feeds into key critical safety systems. Airplanes made by Boeing particularly the Boeing 777 a widebody aircraft used for long haul operations is mainly affected by this rollout as it has altimeters that operate near the C-band frequency.
Altimeters of some specific aircraft operate in the 4.2-4.4 GHz frequency range, while the US had auctioned 5G bandwidth to mobile phone companies in 3.7 to 3.8 GHz of the spectrum called the C-band. This has been flagged as a safety concern by authorities and airlines.
In most other countries like the European Union region, telecom service providers operate in the 3.4 to 3.8 GHz range. South Korea operates its 5G in the 3.4 to 3.7 GHz range but its mid-band range frequency is nowhere close to 4.2 to 4.4Ghz. In France, the placement of 5G antennas has been restricted near airfields and they have been tilted towards the ground to cause no interference.
According to FAA, 45% of the aircraft have an altimeter that will not interfere with 5G and can perform low visibility landings without any concern. But most of these do not operate to major hubs, hence it remains to be seen what the next steps will be.
