“We’re dealing with very low probabilities but extremely devastating consequences,” he said. George Holmes at Resonant Inc., a US company that makes safety devices to stop aircraft experiencing radio interference, said that planes are less likely to experience problems in the EU than in the US because of planning when rolling out the networks. But these have slowly been lifted as technology improved and use was proven to be safe. There have been bans on using mobile phones on planes in many countries due to concerns about interference. Read more: Astronomers criticise plans to allow cellphone use on planes Have mobile phones caused issues in the past? It warned in November that airlines “should be prepared for the possibility that interference from 5G transmitters and other technology could cause certain safety equipment to malfunction, requiring them to take mitigating action that could affect flight operations”. The problem is that the FAA believes that this could be close enough to the part of the spectrum used by aircraft to cause problems. The agency set aside large parts of the spectrum for 5G as far back as July 2016. Most governments have an agency that controls the radio spectrum – in the US, that is the FCC.
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In the UK, the comparable band ends at 4 gigahertz and in the EU, it ends at 3.8 gigahertz. Radio altimeters operate in the 4.2 gigahertz to 4.4 gigahertz band, and the US has set aside a portion of the spectrum right up to the lower band of that for 5G. In the US, the frequencies allocated for 5G are closer to those used by aircraft than those allocated by the EU. In many cases a network will use a mix of these. And others are using 24 gigahertz to 47 gigahertz, which requires more towers but offers even higher data speeds. Some are placing it between 2.3 gigahertz and 4.7 gigahertz, which boosts data speed somewhat. Some countries are using 600 megahertz to 900 megahertz, which isn’t dissimilar to 4G. There is no single part of the electromagnetic spectrum that 5G occupies. Phones and tablets connect to that mast to access the phone network and internet via radio waves.
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A country is divided up into cells, each with a phone mast at its centre. Like 4G before it, 5G is a cellular technology. In short, it’s the fifth generation of mobile phone technology. Unfortunately, the part of the spectrum set aside for vital aircraft operations sits very close to that assigned for 5G in the US and raises the chance of interference. Nothing goes to waste and industries lobby hard to secure their portion. The radio spectrum is a public resource, and it is both congested and hotly contested in the US. Nonetheless, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorised the roll-out of these networks, including the placement of phone masts near airports. These are crucial for making landings in poor visibility and for helicopters flying at low altitude. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has raised concerns that 5G telephone networks will interfere with radio altimeters fitted to some aircraft. Valentyn semenov / Alamy What’s the concern? Telecommunications towers in the US will soon use radiowaves for 5G service that could interfere with planes