The U.S. aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have stepped up efforts to delay Wednesday’s planned deployment of additional frequencies for 5G wireless broadband communications, arguing that not enough has been done to ensure that their deployment will not interfere with certain flight operations.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the activation on Wednesday of radio frequencies in the 3700 to 3800 MHz band, a subset of a larger band that includes frequencies through 3980 MHz, near the frequencies currently used by aircraft radio altimeters, from 4200 to 4400 MHz. The FAA and many in the aviation industry fear that the separation of the two bands is not great enough to prevent interference with critical flight operations that depend on radio altimeter data for landing and other low-altitude operations.
In a letter sent Monday to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, Capt. Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, I…
