TOPLINE
The era of airplane mode aboard flights is coming to an end as the European Commission ruled airlines can begin allowing 5G coverage on planes—but stronger, more controversial 5G frequencies in the U.S. means those restrictions probably won’t be changing soon.
KEY FACTS
The European Commission ruled in late November, with the deadline for European Union member states to comply set for June 30, 2023
This means passengers will be able to use their phones to full capacity, including phone calls, sending out text messages and using streaming services that notoriously use up a lot of data.
Some mobile device usage is already permitted in the U.S. and the EU, including in-flight Wi-Fi that some airlines offer for purchase.
But the U.S. won’t be allowing 5G coverage on flights anytime soon because its 5G frequencies are much higher than those used in Europe.
C-band 5G frequencies—a faster version of 5G with faster radio airwaves—land between 3.7 and 4.2 GHz in the U.S., according to the Federal Communications Commission, higher than the 5G frequency bands used in most of Europe, which range between 3.3 and 3.8 GHz, according to the European 5G Observatory.
As telecommunication companies like AT&T and Verizon beginning using C-band 5G, the use of higher 5G frequencies for telecommunication system in the U.S. has caused controversy, with the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics releasing a report in 2020 stating the move “will cause harmful interference” to aircrafts.
Still: Even if the use of 5G inflight were allowed in the U.S., the public wouldn’t be able to fully use their devices unless a low-power cell tower (called a picocell) is installed on planes, according to Sven Bilén, a professor of engineering at Pennsylvania State University, because most flights will be too high and out of range of typical cell towers.
Although it's been controversial in the aviation industry, the reasons C-band 5G has become so popular over recent years are because it offers faster speeds than 4G, 4G LTE and 5G, it provides a wider coverage area compared to its predecessors and it can—unlike 5G—use existing cell towers without having to build more.
SURPRISING FACT
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Association and the FCC banned the use of cell phones in 1991 due to the concern device signals may interfere with “critical aircraft instruments.” But Americans have increasingly ignored these rules—a 2017 survey by travel insurance company Allianz Global Assistance found that 40% of people don’t turn their phones on airplane mode, and a 2019 survey by AT&T found that 1 in 15 respondents don’t use airplane mode, while 67% of respondents turn their phones completely off during flights.
KEY BACKGROUND
A heated battle between airlines, the FAA, the FCC and AT&T and Verizon about the use of C-band 5G reached its boiling point earlier in 2021. In January, AT&T and Verizon began to activate C-band 5G at 510 wireless towers near airports in the U.S. However, the 10 major U.S. airlines called for a stop due to concerns the frequency would interfere with vital airline equipment and disrupt navigation, resulting in multiple delays, with the most recent delay staying in effect until July 2023. C-band is considered the universal 5G frequency, with radio airwaves that operate at a mid-band frequency—between 3.7 and 4.2 gHZ. Previously, the phone carriers were using a low-band frequency for their 5G coverage that, although has typically good coverage, isn’t that much faster than 4G, according to CNN. Because most European countries use lower frequency 5G compared to the U.S., according to Dai Whittingham, chief executive of the U.K. Flight Safety Commission, the European Union can safely use 5G aboard planes. "There is much less prospect of interference," he told the BBC. "We have a different set of frequencies for 5G, and there are lower power settings than those that have been allowed in the U.S.”
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
As mentioned, the delay for AT&T and Verizon to implement C-band 5G around airports is set to be lifted in July 2023. However, a letter signed in November by top companies in the aviation industry like Boeing and Airlines for America called for the deadline to extend until the end of 2023. A decision on this extension has not yet been made public.