A Guide to the FAA/FCC 5G C-Band Fight

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA)'s new “Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin” on “Risk of Potential Adverse Effects on Radio Altimeters” stated airplane communications and safety features could be affected by the Federal Communications Commission's roll-out of 5G, scheduled for December 2021 but now delayed until January 2022. The technical evidence on which the FAA bases its interference concerns has a lot of problems — not least of which that about 40 other countries operate similar 5G deployments in the same C-Band without any interference showing up. Either physics works differently in the US, or the report at the center of this controversy needs to explain why this hasn’t shown up in any other country where deployments are either authorized or have already taken place. We need this inter-agency warfare over 5G spectrum policy to stop. That we now have an FAA that would prefer to actively undermine confidence in the safety of air travel than actually work with the FCC underscores just how bad this problem has become. Congress can help by swiftly confirming Alan Davidson as head of National Telecommunications and Information Administration (the federal agency that is supposed to manage the spectrum management process on the federal side) and Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn at the FCC.

[Harold Feld is Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge.]