Gogo Business Aviation has responded to recent reports of federal regulatory bodies highlighting the potential for certain radio frequencies planned to be used for 5G networks interfering with aeronautical services.
Those discussions between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concern potential interference with aircraft radio altimeters that operate in the 4.0GHz to 4.2GHz range, caused by the terrestrial carriers’ 5G use of C-Band spectrum in the 3.7 to 3.98GHz range.
“Gogo has never used the frequencies under discussion, nor do we plan to use those frequencies for our 5G network,” stated Sergio Aguirre, president of Gogo Business Aviation. “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.”
For its 5G network Gogo plans to use 4MHz of spectrum it owns in the 800MHz band and additional unlicenced spectrum in the 2.423GHz to 2.475 GHz range, which the company says has sufficient spacing from the radio altimeter operating range to preclude any interference by the Gogo 5G system.