Aviation safety took center stage yesterday as experts testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure while lawmakers considered reauthorizing the FAA. Two out of six witnesses covered topics of interest to the telecom industry — 5G operations on C-band and related spectrum authorization.
Beginning in 2015, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and a coalition of aviation stakeholders raised “detailed safety concerns” about the potential for 5G interference with radio altimeters, according to NBAA President/CEO Ed Bolen.
“The mitigations to ensure that 5G power levels around many of the nation’s airports remain lower than allowed by telecommunications providers were extended over the course of the past year but are about to expire. Currently, only some of the business aviation fleet have alternate means of compliance, allowing them to continue all-weather access to most airports,” Bolen said in his written testimony.
“For a significant portion of our fleet, there is not yet an approved retrofit solution to upgrade the radar altimeter with filters to protect from 5G interference,” Bolen continued. The NBAA recommends that the FAA “dedicate the necessary resources to approve alternate means of compliance or the radar altimeter modifications needed for the general aviation fleet to safely operate across our nation’s entire airport network,” he stated.
Concerning managing and coordinating spectrum use in general and as it relates to 5G, General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) President/CEO Peter Bunce testified there’s been, “a clear lack of coordination amongst industry and government stakeholders to consider all impacts of spectrum use and facilitate desired outcomes. This ultimately has significantly negative impacts upon aviation and broader stakeholders, including those in the telecommunications sector seeking to deploy and utilize spectrum.”
While there are limits to how the issue can be addressed in an FAA reauthorization bill, GAMA believes there are still some steps that can be taken in the legislation to ensure the protection of aviation safety and enhance coordination while efforts continue more broadly. “We suggest policymakers require the FAA to coordinate with a reputable third party (such as the National Academy of Science) to report to the Committee on a strategy for protecting aviation equities in the radio spectrum,” Bunce said in written testimony.
“The strategy should include a process for the FAA and the aviation community to properly and thoroughly review proposed spectrum reallocations (including through auctions) to ensure that any comments, objections, or technical concerns from aviation stakeholders in any FCC proceeding are definitively assessed and addressed at a technical level to those stakeholders’ satisfaction. The report should also develop an improved spectrum process and road map that could help meet the future needs of the aviation system in a way that also supports other private sector applications that are rapidly expanding and have societal value,” Bunce suggested.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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