Says No Interference From Their Equipment, Safe for Instruments

Gogo Business Aviation released a short statement, commenting on recent FAA activities that aim to warn operators and pilots about possible instrument interference resulting from 5G network rollout across the country.

Gogo says their network is perfectly safe for flight operations, because their equipment uses frequencies outside the range of overlap with aircraft radio altimeters. 

As the simmering dispute between network operators, the FCC, and the FAA continues, the tenuous pause in the cellular development race for faster internet service leaves some 5G network advocates exasperated by the delays. In a statement earlier this year, Meredith Attwell Baker, president of the CTIA, a group representing most larger U.S. cell carriers, said "Any delay in activating this spectrum risks America’s competitiveness and jeopardizes our ability to ensure global 5G leadership."

Additional testing requests by the FAA for reassurance of safety in the terminal environment has been focused on the overlap in radar altimeter frequencies, between 4.0 and 4.2 GHz, and the nearby cell network frequencies eyed for 5G networks from 3.7 to 3.98 Ghz.

Fears that in fringe cases, altimetry could be adversely affected by the signals have arisen in industry groups hoping to avoid disaster. The FAA plans to issue a special airworthiness bulletin about the issue, with expectations that they will limit the use of automated systems aboard aircraft that rely on radar altimeters. 

Gogo’s frequencies are safely farther away, operating their 5G in the 4 Mhz spectrum as well as in the unlicensed frequencies between 2.423 GHz to 2.475 GHz. 

“Gogo has never used the frequencies under discussion, nor do we plan to use those frequencies for our 5G network,” said president of Gogo, Sergio Aguirre. “The spectrum bands used by Gogo, currently and following the launch of our 5G network, have been in use for decades and have never been shown to interfere with aeronautical services.” 

FMI: www.gogoair.com