DoT warns telcos not to setup 5G sites near airports

DoT has prescribed certain parameters to install 5G cities to avoid interference with aircraft altimeters and the US Federal Aviation Administrator and Federation of Indian Pilots had earlier voiced their concerns over 5G signals interfering with altimeters. 5G services near airports and nearby areas will not be available soon. India is expected to have 690 million 5G subscribers by the end of 2028. 5G will play a crucial role in achieving India’s digital inclusion goals especially for bringing broadband to rural and remote homes.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have reportedly received a notice from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that restricts them from setting up 5G cities near airports.

Bharti Airtel – the only operator to install 5G services at select airports – has shut down its base stations temporarily at five airports, including Bengaluru, Nagpur, Patna, Pune and Varanasi. The DoT said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has requested to ensure mitigation measures while implementing C-band 5G spectrum, in and around airport areas in view of the safety concerns for operation of aircraft.

As per DoT, 2,100 metres (2.1 km) from both ends of the runway and 910 metres from the centre line of the runway of Indian Airports should ‘have no 5G/IMT base stations in the range of 3300-3670 MHz’. A 5G base station can be installed in the periphery of 540 metre after this 2.1 kms range, but power emission must be limited to 58 decibel-milliwatts /MHz.

DoT has said that the measures shall be adopted by the telecom service providers with immediate effect and would be applicable till the replacement of all aircraft radio altimeters filters is ensured by the DGCA. With this, users won’t be able to access the 5G network in areas surrounding airports.

Sources said, there are lots of disturbances and disconnection increases while there are normal calls. A normal consumer looks for just normal calls and surfing the internet and maybe sometimes any of the social media. It also seems a challenge during this technology upgrade by the Telcos.

This is due to the interference 5G signals cause to the aircraft altimeters. Therefore, for the time being, the residential areas surrounding airports within this parameter will not be able to use 5G services. The measures shall be adopted by the telecom service providers with immediate effect and would be applicable till the replacement of all aircraft radio altimeters filters is ensured by DGCA.

The Department of Telecommunications in the notice has also said that DGCA is expected to complete the altimeter replacement exercise in a proactive and time-bound manner and also requested DGCA to provide a timeline for replacement of radio altimeters and its filters.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA