5G is not operational around airports in India. There's a big reason behind that. There's a risk that the 5G frequencies that operate on the C-band in India can interfere with the crucial altimeter equipment that's inside an aircraft. Thus, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked the telcos to avoid installing 5G base stations in the C-band within 2 kilometres from both ends of the runway and almost a kilometre from the centre line of the runway. A few weeks back, there was a report which said that the DoT was going to conduct a detailed study on the matter. Now, according to a BusinessLine report, the DoT is in talks with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation on the interference of 5G bands with aircraft radio altimetres.
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According to the report, the DoT has sent the aviation bodies operational guidelines that the telcos would have to adhere to when it comes to rolling out 5G near the airports so that there's no inference with the aircraft equipment. There have been arguments from the industry that there's enough gap between the spectrum that is used for C-band 5G in India and what the altimeter uses.
