Airline balk at mobile phone carriers upgrade to 5G

Listen toevery weekday at 9:30 am and 7:30 pm on WITF 89.5 & 93.3. You can also stream WITF radio live on our website or ask your smart speaker to “Play WITF Radio.”

Airdate: Monday, January 24, 2021

Does 5G wireless service, that brings greater speed and capacity to phones, pose a danger to aircraft landing at airports when there’s low visibility?

Depends on who you ask.

Verizon and AT&T wireless carriers, with agreement from the Federal Communications Commission, say yes and point out 40 other countries have airports near 5G towers that operate safely.

But the Federal Aviation Administration and major airlines aren’t so sure — claiming 5G towers could interfere with an aircraft’s altimeters which measure how far a plane is off the ground when landing.Airline CEOs are demanding the cellular phone networks not use 5G technology within two miles of an airport. They add that there will widespread flight cancellations if they do.

Do airlines or the traveling public have anything to worry about?

Appearing Monday’sto discuss the 5G issue is Terrill L. Frantz, Ph.D., Ed.D., Associate Professor of eBusiness and Cybersecurity, Quantum Information Science Programs, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

5Gairlines

Support for WITF is provided by:

Become a WITF sponsor today »