Four takeaways from the House hearing on 5G in the C-band

On Thursday, the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a lengthy hearing on 5G operations in C-band spectrum and whether they pose a threat to aircraft.

The event was noteworthy because it’s the first time aviation and wireless experts, including the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), have spoken at length in public about the topic.

The hearing came just weeks after the conclusion of a remarkable few weeks of very public negotiations between the US airline industry and the wireless industry over whether AT&T and Verizon should launch their midband 5G services near airports. The two carriers agreed to curtail their services in some of those high-traffic areas over worries that 5G signals in C-band spectrum might interfere with aircraft radio altimeters.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, it’s an important question. Citing unnamed sources, the publication reported that US safety regulators have received more than 100 pilot reports of possible interference from 5G wireless signals.

I listened to the House committee’s entire, four-hour-plus proceeding, and here are my four takeaways:

1. Political grandstanding is alive and well.

“We don’t really regulate telecoms anymore. That’s why we have the crappiest cell phone service in the world. … It’s so disappointing,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the chair of the committee and the driving force behind the hearing. “Having a dropped call is way less serious than having a dropped airplane out of the sky.”

DeFazio took a hard line against the telecom industry during the event, arguing that wireless carriers including Verizon and AT&T should delay their C-band launches near airports until US airline officials have completely and thoroughly tested the situation for any possible interference.

“That’s what we plan for, is the worst, worst case scenario,” he said of the airline industry.

“It’s not enough to be comfortable,” agreed Steve Dickson, the head of the FAA. Even if there is a “one-in-1-billion” chance of interference, the FAA needs to know that, he said. “They’re not used to that precision,” Dickson said of the wireless industry.

Perhaps not surprisingly, other members of the House committee were not nearly as familiar with the topic as Dickson and DeFazio. For example, one representative reading a question said “G-H-Z” instead of saying the far more common “gigahertz.”

Further, the hearing featured a large number of airline industry executives and only one speaker – CTIA CEO Meredith Attwell Baker – from the wireless industry. Missing from the event was anyone from Verizon – the operator most clearly affected by the issue – and members of the FCC.

According to Politico, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel met with top members of the committee the day before the hearing but declined to testify due to a prior commitment. The committee did not take FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s offer to step in to represent the agency that actually looked into the interference topic prior to auctioning the C-band for 5G.

“It gives people the feeling that bureaucratic malaise in Washington is alive and well,” said Rep. John Katko (R-NY).

Thankfully though, the overall discussion remained mostly on topic and did not stray into hot-button political issues as it did in the Senate during a hearing for new FCC and NTIA leadership. That was when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) began asking questions about “critical race theory” for some reason.

2. Sharing data is important, apparently.

One of the key elements that came up during the hearing is the importance of AT&T and Verizon’s cell site locations. Dickson, of the FAA, said that information was critical to the agency because it could affect how 5G signals might interact with aircraft radio altimeters.

“We did not have the data that we needed,” Dickson said, explaining the reasoning behind the FAA’s high-stakes standoff with AT&T and Verizon that ultimately resulted in dozens of canceled and diverted flights. Without that data, he said, “we have to assume that 5G in C-band is blanketing the entire country.”

To read the complete article, visit Light Reading.