5G and aviation: the Canadian context

On Monday, executives of several U.S. airlines wrote to leadership of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Communications Commission to warn that commercial flights would be disrupted by the deployment of 5G services by U.S. telecom companies on C-band spectrum. This is despite a move earlier this month in which the American telecom companies agreed to delay the deployment of 5G after the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration requested it. In their Monday letter, the aviation executives ask for a ban to be reinstated. AT&T agreed to delay its rollout the next day. While January has been a chaotic month for the American telecom and aviation industries, Canada's companies are still in something of a holding pattern, following the November release of a Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) document outlining the consultation process for its Standard Radio System Plan (SRSP). The document is aimed at ensuring that 5G service be rolled out without affecting the operations around airports. What were the contentious issues, and where do key stakeholders stand? ISED issued the call for comments last August and received filings until mid-October. It received submissions from BCE Inc.; a coalition of aviation and aerospace stakeholders; the Department of National Defence; Iristel Inc.; the Mobile Interest Group (MIG) made up of Bell Mobility, Ericsson, Nokia, Rogers, Samsung, SaskTel and Telus; the Radio Advisory Board of Canada (RABC); Rogers Communications Inc.; Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp.; Telus Communications Inc.; Transport Canada Civil Aviation; and Xplornet Communications Inc. “BCE, MIG, Rogers and Telus commented that the publicly available reports, including ISED’s calculations, do not provide evidence that flexible use operation in the 3500 MHz band will cause harmful interference to radio altimeters and therefore do not justify the proposed restrictions in the SRSP,” the document stated. Radio altimeters are used by aircraft in guidance systems. Bell, the Mobile Interest Group , Rogers and Telus further added that “spurious emission limits” cited in a previous filing from ISED is not representative of actual 5G base stations. BCE, SaskTel, and MIG indicated that the assumption of extremely poor out-of-band filtering in the radio altimeter receiver is also improbable, given the robustness of altimeters.Such filtering would cause interference with plane equipment from the 5G transmitters. “MIG, Rogers, SaskTel and Telus recommended that ISED gather information on radio altimeters currently in use, and determine their actual performance associated with market penetration, especially with regards to the out-of-band rejection,” ISED wrote. “MIG, Rogers, SaskTel, Telus and Xplornet recommended that ISED, in collaboration with other stakeholders, perform lab and/or field testing to determine what interference could potentially occur between flexible use deployments and radio altimeters in Canada in order to develop co-existence rules.” Later on in the document, the department said it agreed that more information is required on radio altimeter performance to ensure that the 3,500 band is used to maximize the economic and social benefits to the country while at the same time ensuring that suitable interference protection is in place. It will continue to review and analyze information as it becomes available. A contentious issue revolves around deployment of equipment at and near airports. “For the exclusion/protection zones, BCE and Telus commented that 5G deployments in the 3500 MHz band around the selected airports will be negatively impacted,” the document read. “They added that airports are key international trading gateways and the areas around them are hubs of significant economic and industrial activities.” The proposed regulations would see companies required to tilt their antennae down rather than up to avoid interference with aircraft. BCE and Telus commented that such a move would limit the service provided to office towers and apartment buildings. RABC and SaskTel suggested allowing antenna uplifts with a maximum power limit that would protect radio altimeters. “SaskTel recognized that the national antenna down-tilt requirement is meant to protect helicopters used by military and emergency first responders,” ISED noted. “SaskTel commented that it was not unreasonable to identify the models of radio altimeters in these helicopters and determine whether they could in fact operate safely in the vicinity of 3500 MHz deployments. SaskTel recommended that ISED continue further investigation into the altimeters used by military and emergency service helicopters with the goal to rescind the national antenna down-tilt requirement as soon as possible, as was done in France.” The department addressed those concerns a few pages later. “ISED will continue to study whether allowing antenna up-tilted base stations at a specific power level could be feasible, while still protecting radio altimeters. Based on further investigation, ISED will also consider whether different mitigation measures could be imposed in urban, rural, and remote areas. At this time, ISED considers that the national antenna down-tilt requirement is necessary until more information is available on the types of radio altimeters in use on helicopters in Canada.” The department anticipates that there will be more evidence forthcoming from domestic and international studies. If these studies suggest further tinkering with the rules for deployment are necessary, ISED will instigate another round of consultations. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

5G and aviation: the Canadian context

News | January 18, 2022

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5G and aviation: the Canadian context

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