The European Union is deciding whether to allow flights to provide 5G services for passengers in the air, including using wireless data to listen to music, watch videos, swipe various apps and make phone calls because it can’t stand the slow, turtle-like Wi-Fi service in the air.
If the bill passes, it would mean the EU would require airlines to provide 5G connectivity for passengers and not require them to pay for Wi-Fi, which would mean the end of airline-mandated phone shutdowns and flight modes. If agreed, EU member states will need to be ready for such 5G networks by June 30, 2023.
In response, EU Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement that the plan would “provide innovative services for people” and help European companies grow, and that “the sky will no longer be the limit when it comes to the possibilities offered by ultra-fast, high-capacity connections.
According to the statement, the airline will use special network equipment called “pico-cell” to connect the aircraft to the ground, transmitting phone calls, text and Web data through the ground’s satellite network.
Image Source Pexels
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in 2013 that they first introduced a ban on phone use on airplanes in 1991 to “avoid the threat of harmful interference with ground cellular networks from phone use in the air,” and that countries have since adopted this rule.
The ban on phone use on planes is said to be due to its potential to interfere with pilots’ navigation systems. However, as Business Insider reported in 2017, the Federal Communications Commission enacted a ban on airplane phones to “protect ground cellular networks from radio interference.”
Simply put, if all airlines allowed users to use phones at 40,000 feet, multiple towers on the ground would pick up signals from a large number of active phones in a short period of time, which could lead to congestion on the ground network and disrupt communications services.
Day Whittingham, chief executive of the British Flight Safety Council, said in an interview with the BBC that the use of phones on planes has historically been banned because people didn’t know then what effect they would have on the aircraft.
“We were concerned that it might interfere with the automatic flight control system,” Whittingham said, “and from experience, we found that the risk of interference was very small. But we have always recommended that users turn their devices off or set them in airplane mode while in flight.”
That said, while the U.S. has always had concerns about 5G interference, Whittingham said the U.K. and EU have no such concerns.
“The likelihood of interference is much less, we have a different set of 5G frequencies and lower power settings than the U.S. standard. Traveling users want 5G, and regulators will have to provide that possibility, but will need to take steps to ensure that everything they do is safe.”
