My Two Cents: Should Our Safety on Airplanes Take a Back Seat to Our Need for Faster Data Speed?

There are safety concerns justifying turning your cell signal off before your plane’s take-off and prior to its landing!

With COVID numbers going down, travel for both work and pleasure is on the rise (albeit somewhat slowed due to the economy, price of fuel, and staff shortages).  And when we are on the go, we are more reliant (or addicted) on being connected anywhere. And when we are connected, we want faster internet speeds!  The rollout of cellular 5G has really made a leap to get us faster internet speeds while on the move.  But, there has been a recent and concerning hiccup.

The new “C” band for the newer 5G cellphone network that companies are rolling out is causing some worries.  (A “communication network” is a series of radio relays, basically, the cell towers you see everywhere, that connect to a base station or cell site.  The stations communicate to each other through satellites allowing all of us to be connected to each other.  The “band” on a cell phone network is the radio frequency the towers wireless communicate on – like changing the channels on your FM radio station).  There are some very legitimate concerns that the frequency the 5G “C” band uses could interfere with an airport tower’s altimeter.

Film poster for Die Hard 2 - ™ AND © 2014 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PROPERTY OF FOX.

An altimeter tells an airplane how far vertically it is from the grand.  The “C” band for 5G is on a similar or close frequency to that used by airports for their altimeters. If nearby cell phone radio waves are interfering with the altimeters that could spell danger for the airplanes coming in for a landing, their passengers, and those already on the ground.  Does anyone remember Die Hard 2 – Die Harder? 

Mike Blake of Reuters reports on Engadget that “AT&T and Verizon have given the Federal Aviation Administration another year to fix altimeter issues as they look to roll out C-band 5G services around airports.”  My question is “why is the government fixing their altimeters and not the cell companies either fixing their product or just not using this particular bandwidth?” The article reports that the cell companies have been working closely with the FAA and Federal Communications Commission.  But, the companies “…will lift the voluntary limitations on our 5G network deployment around airports in a staged approach over the coming months meaning even more consumers and businesses will benefit from the tremendous capabilities of 5G technology. This … sets the stage for continued, robust 5G deployment.”

I’m a bit trepid of this “too close for comfort relationship” between the two bands.  I don’t think that even John McClane can save the day when there is a sudden interference of an altimeter because someone forgot to turn off their phone before take-off or turns it on just prior to landing.  Remember once the cabin doors are closed, you are to turn off your phone or put it into airplane mode so your cell signal does not interfere with the plane's instruments. Whatever it is you are doing online including legal work or whomever you are talking to (even a paying client) is simply just not that important. Your life could depend on it.

PSA:  Turn your phone off or turn off your cellular signal once the airplane door closes and don’t turn it back on until your aircrew tells you it’s safe to.

MTC.