A group of 15 aviation associations sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressing concern over frequency spectrum relocation affecting radar altimeters, a critical flight safety tool. The group requested that the FCC suspend Auction 107, scheduled to begin Dec. 8, which offers new flexible‐use overlay licenses for spectrum in the 3.7–3.98 GHz band, in order to resolve likely interference issues with radar altimeters prior to the auction.
“Since 2017, the aviation industry has consistently noted during the Federal Communications Commission rulemaking process that deployment of 5G networks in this frequency band may introduce harmful radio frequency interference to radar altimeters currently operating in the globally-allocated 4.2–4.4 GHz aeronautical band,” the group wrote.