How the launch of ‘real’ 5G turned into an unmitigated PR disaster

Midband 5G has long been the most alluring flavor of the technology. Unlike lowband 5G, it supports impressive speeds. And unlike highband, millimeter wave 5G, it covers wide geographic areas.

Midband 5G has often been described as the “real” 5G due to the “Goldilocks” nature of spectrum that’s not too low and not too high but juuuuuust right. For years, executives in the US wireless industry – including Verizon, specifically – have been yearning for the chance to launch widespread midband 5G networks.

That finally happened this week.

But what should have been a cause for celebration instead turned into one of the most incredible public relations catastrophes the US wireless industry has ever seen.

Concerns that midband 5G could literally kill you

As noted by the Associated Press, a top airline out of the United Arab Emirates announced this week it would halt flights to several American cities due to “operational concerns associated with the planned deployment of 5G mobile network services in the US at certain airports.” Meaning, it diverted or canceled flights over fears they would crash.

The airline, Emirates, was not alone.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways warned that “radio waves from the 5G wireless service may interfere with aircraft altimeters.” As a result, it, too, canceled a number of flights to the US.

As reported by Reuters, other international airlines that canceled or modified flights this week due to 5G concerns included Germany’s Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, Air India, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Korean Air.

Why? Because there are widespread worries in the airline industry that 5G operations in a midband block of the spectrum called the C-band will mess up radio altimeters in an aircraft. Those are used to help pilots land in low-visibility conditions like fog and rain.

According to airline industry publication The Air Current, 5G tests in the C-band spectrum may have caused multiple aircraft to record the wrong altitude at an airport in Florida. Citing unnamed pilots who experienced the situation, aircraft altitude recordings abruptly ran down to zero, generating loud aural warnings: PULL UP WHOOP WHOOP DON’T SINK TOO LOW GEAR.

That’s precisely the problem that some airline officials are worried about. And it’s why the US airline industry basically conducted a high-stakes, high-profile standoff with AT&T and Verizon over the past few months. And, ultimately, the threat of airplane crashes – however remote – is what caused both operators to indefinitely delay the launch of 5G in C-band spectrum near dozens of US airports.

The only problem is that they announced their delay a little too late for some international flights this week. “The last-minute postponement happened too late to stop the crews being sent out for today’s (return) flight. It just made it a nightmare,” a pilot with a major European airline told Reuters.

The blame game

Citing unnamed FCC officials, Law360 reported that executives in the wireless industry are “pissed” about the situation and “apoplectic” about airline concerns of 5G interference that should have been addressed years ago. The publication noted that wireless industry executives are upset that “the spectrum management within the [US] government is a mess right now.”

That mess was on clear display after President Biden essentially promised earlier this month that there would be no more problems between the US wireless industry and the US aviation industry, only to have those problems result in the cancellation of dozens of international flights. (It’s worth noting that few domestic flights appear to have been affected, according to PCMag, likely because of the type of aircraft involved.)

Republican members of the FCC put the blame squarely on the Biden administration. “The Biden administration’s botched handling of C-band 5G offerings highlights a failure of competent leadership,” tweeted FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

But analyst Tim Farrar with TMF Associates wrote that much of the blame likely rests on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is currently headed by an appointee of former President Trump.

To read the complete article, visit Light Reading.