[HN Gopher] Boeing, Airbus executives urge delay in U.S. 5G wire...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Boeing, Airbus executives urge delay in U.S. 5G wireless deployment
        
       Author : HieronymusBosch
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2021-12-21 21:18 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | onphonenow wrote:
       | There is something weird going on here. Is this a turf battle
       | between FCC and FAA? Does FAA not really have tech experts
       | anymore?
       | 
       | This process has been going since 2011, with lots of input from
       | stakeholders (the usual slow govt process). The FCC carefully
       | studies interference before opening a band up.
       | 
       | The guard band is absolutely ridiculous at 220Mhz - I thought
       | this was a typo when I saw it. Looking at Boeing comments, Boeing
       | had requested a max guard band of 110Mhz and the FCC doubled
       | that.
       | 
       | We have 30 - 40 countries already operating mobile services in
       | this band. I haven't heard of credible reports of interference.
       | 
       | Finally, longstanding RF rules require that your RF equipment
       | operate in its assigned band. The fault here, if any, lies with
       | airlines and aircraft mfgs to update their equipment if needed.
       | That said, I doubt it's needed.
       | 
       | So seriously, there is some weird FAA stuff going on now.
       | 
       | We wonder why the US infrastructure costs so much. Instead of
       | doing some tests in the years that this was in the cards, the FAA
       | is now throwing up all sorts of roadblocks, just as biden gets
       | ready to spend $1.2 trillion on infrastructure.
       | 
       | Seriously, if this is a real issue, have every airline land near
       | a test deployment of C-band, and figure out which altimeters are
       | so pathetic they need a 200Mhz guard band.
        
         | ohmyzee wrote:
         | Any conversation around the 5g rollout was colour washed from
         | day one. I assume that happened naturally but who knows really.
         | I have seen very very little informative conversation online,
         | mainly because it became something like the current vaccine
         | debate where the middle line is drowned out by the "believers",
         | and the "crazies". I'm not really surprised to see seemingly
         | routine issues go unnoticed until now.
        
         | john_moscow wrote:
         | That pretty well fits the typical mindset of the past decade.
         | Nobody wants to take risks and build shit, everyone is instead
         | looking for a noble excuse to get their share of money and
         | authority without actually doing any hard work.
        
       | AlexandrB wrote:
       | I don't get it. What difference does it make if US delays roll
       | out when many other countries are going ahead already? It's not
       | like Boeing and Airbus planes don't operate in China, for
       | example.
        
         | tssva wrote:
         | 3500-3600Mhz and 4800-4900Mhz are the closest used frequencies
         | for 5G in China. Much farther away from the frequencies used by
         | the altimeters than the frequencies causing the concern in the
         | US. In Europe the closest frequency being used is 3800Mhz.
         | Again much farther away from the frequencies used by the
         | altimeters.
        
         | PicassoCTs wrote:
         | Its not the same 5G in the us. Its the 5 grapefruit wavelength
         | standard. If you measure them differently, different standards
         | may apply.
        
         | firebaze wrote:
         | We're talking of different bands. Like visible light vs.
         | infrared or x-ray.
        
         | onphonenow wrote:
         | Actually, other countries (like france) did their own tests and
         | threw out the crap from AVSI/RTCA (who have been very shady
         | about disclosing their data).
         | 
         | Japan and other countries do smaller guard bands, some let cell
         | service go within 100Mhz (ie, twice as close).
         | 
         | This is really an indictment of the technical incompetence and
         | lack of planning (over 10 years) of the FAA.
        
       | gregmac wrote:
       | Can someone with insight into radio technology explain this?
       | 
       | > The 5G network deployment in the U.S. starting on December 5 is
       | in the 3700 to 3800-MHz bands then later in the 3700 to 3980-MHz
       | bands. Radio altimeters use the 4200 to 4400-MHz band. [1].
       | 
       | Are these not sufficiently separated? Can this not be tested
       | easily, by blasting 5G frequencies at a bunch of different planes
       | in test flights? They've had like a decade to do this; I'd expect
       | something more concrete then "concerns about potential
       | interference" at this point.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-
       | transport/2021-1...
        
         | jltsiren wrote:
         | It's probably more about the safety culture than the
         | technology. This is the same industry that grounded the 737 MAX
         | worldwide for almost two years due to some rare issues that
         | would have been tolerated in almost every other field.
         | 
         | Because radio altimeters have not been required to tolerate
         | interference above a certain threshold within ~10% of their
         | frequency band, the assumption is that they cannot tolerate it
         | until there is something like a decade or two of production-
         | scale experience without any serious issues. Or until all
         | passenger planes have radio altimeters certified for the new
         | stricter requirements. And because the latter costs money, the
         | industry won't do it as long as other options remain.
        
           | formerly_proven wrote:
           | Those "rare issues that would have been tolerated in almost
           | every other field" are the root cause that killed hundreds of
           | people.
        
             | jorvi wrote:
             | Not only that, the issue was caused by Boeing cheaping out
             | on quantity of sensors, and then the 'there is an issue'
             | light was sold as a safety upgrade. And the reason this was
             | all needed was because Boeing wanted to escape having to
             | recertify pilots for a new type rating.
        
         | onphonenow wrote:
         | There is something weird going on at FAA / NTSB etc.
         | 
         | In most radio applications a guard band of 220Mhz is absolutely
         | unheard of.
         | 
         | You would do a guard at 10% of bandwidth lets say. On one side
         | you'd have 5%.
         | 
         | So we are talking 1-2 Mhz?
         | 
         | My understanding was planes already had 2-3 altimeters, with
         | guard band spacing of maybe 5Mhz (ie, planes already have
         | devices blasting signals at frequencies much closer than
         | 200Mhz).
        
       | stevemadere wrote:
       | It seems to me the much bigger issue is going to be those 5G
       | signals emanating from the chips installed by the covid vaccines
       | and all the passengers
        
         | fredgrott wrote:
         | does baseless mongering of miss-information belong here? flag
         | this idiot.
        
       | pedalpete wrote:
       | How did 5G get this far into deployment all around the world
       | without the apparent issue of interference being addressed much
       | earlier?
        
         | formerly_proven wrote:
         | Probably because there isn't any problem. Though it could also
         | be that 5G in the US is meant to use some different channels /
         | frequencies than elsewhere, as was done in older wireless
         | standards.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | can16358p wrote:
         | Because there is no evidence of any interference. Boeing and
         | Airbus are requesting something without showing any evidence,
         | which could have been easily detected in a test environment.
        
           | onphonenow wrote:
           | Their views aren't even that logical.
           | 
           | You already need multiple radar altimeters on ONE plane much
           | closer physically and spectrum wise than 5G. In busy airports
           | you already have multiple altimeters operating again closely
           | physically.
           | 
           | Anyways, even if there is interference, it's actually boeing
           | that should fix their systems to operate within their
           | assigned band (ie, operate in the middle of the band, and
           | reject signals outside of band). This is radio 101 stuff.
        
       | bastardoperator wrote:
       | They're a day late and a dollar short. 5G is widespread in
       | metropolitan area which tend to host airports. What's the deal
       | actual with this?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-12-21 23:00 UTC)