Posted on 02/03/22
| News Source: Washington Post
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Steve Dickson testified Thursday before the House Transportation Committee on his agency’s efforts to ensure that planes remain safe as wireless companies turn on 5G networks that could interfere with safety equipment.
Disruptions to aviation have been minimal since the networks were rolled out last month. The FAA has been clearing individual airplane models to land when visibility is poor at airports affected by 5G signals. The agency on Friday announced an agreement that will allow wireless carriers to activate more towers while also enabling more aircraft to operate at key airports.
“While we have avoided significant disruption to commercial aviation, we recognize that some communities and operations have been affected because we have not been able to fully mitigate interference risk for certain radio altimeters,” Dickson said.
Aviation safety concerns led to the rollout of the fast wireless networks, operated by Verizon and AT&T, twice being pushed back during a months-long battle that pitted airlines against the telecom giants. When the companies were ready to flip the switch last month, the White House stepped in to secure limits on the deployment after airlines warned of chaos.
Although the disruptions have proved to be limited, Nicholas Calio, chief executive of the industry group Airlines for America, told the committee in written remarks that on some days, carriers are still left “simply hoping for good weather so flights can be cleared to land at their intended destinations.”
Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., the top Republican on the aviation subcommittee, said the last-minute scramble had been an embarrassment and that federal agencies should have worked together earlier to ensure the new technology was safe.
“There’s no excuse for us to be in this situation,” he said.
In prepared remarks, Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., the committee’s chairman, said the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the Trump administration, Ajit Pai, had missed opportunities to tackle the problems.
“The FCC’s history of subordinating transportation safety to corporate broadband interests has predictably resulted in the current mess we find ourselves in and must change if we hope to avoid a similar result in the future,” DeFazio said.
DeFazio said Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC’s chairwoman, was unavailable to attend the hearing. Pai said in an interview that DeFazio’s concerns and those of the aviation sector, “are entirely misplaced.”
Pai said that during his tenure as chairman the FCC coordinated with multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, on spectrum issues. He added that the FAA had multiple opportunities to raise concerns about the impact new 5G services would have on aviation safety.
“They might not like the answer they got, but they certainly had a chance to have input,” Pai said.
FCC spokeswoman Paloma Perez said Rosenworcel was invited to the hearing but had a prior commitment. She said Rosenworcel met with DeFazio and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., separately on Wednesday and had a productive discussion, “including on how to build on the progress to date so that 5G networks and aviation technologies can safely coexist in the United States.”
The FAA has warned since the fall that radio altimeters, which provide altitude measurements and are critical for landing in poor visibility, could be susceptible to interference from the 5G network, which operates on nearby airwaves. As the networks have come online, the agency has cleared 90% of commercial planes to continue flying.
Wireless carriers in recent weeks have provided additional information about the location of their transmitters, allowing the FAA to conduct a more thorough analysis of how the 5G C-band signals interact with aircraft altimeters. The new data has enabled the FAA to reduce areas around airports where special steps must be taken to prevent potential interference from 5G signals – a step the agency says will enable more towers to be activated in major markets.
On Thursday, the House committee also will hear from the leaders of groups representing the aviation and wireless industries, which have been at odds for months over the rollout.
Meredith Attwell Baker, chief executive of CTIA, a wireless industry group, wrote in prepared remarks that the aviation industry relied on faulty data to stoke concerns about 5G.
“Aviation interests primarily rely on a single industry study, but that study applied flawed methodology and implausible scenarios to claim interference,” she wrote.
Baker wrote that evidence from other countries with similar 5G networks, combined with the initial rollout in the United States, shows the new technology presents no danger.
Calio sought to downplay the dispute between the industries, saying airlines were supportive of 5G and blamed the government for not acting sooner. “The truth of the matter is that both of our industries have been thrust into this avoidable economic calamity by a government process that failed to provide an adequate amount of interagency communication, understanding and recognition of decisional consequences,” he wrote.
Dickson said he was confident that the two sectors were now in a position to collaborate.
“The FAA’s primary concern is and will always be the safety of the aviation system. But we firmly believe that, by working together, 5G and aviation can – and will – safely coexist,” he said.