Head of NOAA says 5G deployment could set weather forecasts back 40 years. The wireless industry denies it.

What if, suddenly, decades of progress in weather prediction was reversed and monster storms that we currently see coming for days were no longer foreseeable? The toll on life, property and the economy would be enormous. Yet the government’s science agencies say such a loss in forecast accuracy could happen if the Federal Communications Commission and the US wireless industry get their way. Both the FCC and the wireless industry are racing to deploy 5G technology, which will deliver information at speeds 100 times faster than today’s mobile networks. But scientists have found this technology could interfere with critical satellite data used in weather forecasting, pitting the interests of science and safety against a pressing national priority.

Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Congress that 5G interference could set the accuracy of weather forecasts back 40 years.  CTIA, the trade group representing the US wireless communications industry, unleashed a scathing rebuttal of the Jacobs’ assertion. “It’s an absurd claim with no science behind it,” wrote Brad Gillen, CTIA’s executive vice president.