The GSMA today hit out against false claims that 5G systems will harm other services, such as weather forecasting. The mobile industry has already demonstrated within leading international standards bodies that 5G can be used safely alongside other services, including weather sensing services, commercial satellite, radar and other applications using adjacent airwaves.
The GSMA is confident that 5G services and weather sensing services can co-exist, and warns against giving credence to those claiming a negative impact from 5G networks on weather forecasting data.
“5G and weather forecasts can and will co-exist – it’s ludicrous to suggest otherwise,” said Brett Tarnutzer, Head of Spectrum, GSMA. “To suggest that our 7-day forecast will go away with 5G is simply fake news. We cannot allow these scare tactics to prevent us from reaping the huge societal and economic benefits of 5G networks. We urge everyone to simply look at the facts and not get drawn in by misleading rhetoric.”
The fact is 5G and weather forecasts can co-exist
Existing services can be safeguarded without hampering the rollout of 5G by adopting reasonable interference mitigation approaches. The weather sensing community is basing its doomsday scenario on a decade-old scrapped program of weather sensors that were never deployed. Their arguments fail to take into account how 5G actually works and tried and tested approaches to managing interference issues without adopting overly restrictive protections.
Bad spectrum management harms 5G
Europe is in the midst of identifying and allocating spectrum for 5G, which will ensure that it remains technologically and economically competitive globally. For safeguarding existing services the facts don’t support adopting new technical limits that would make 50 per cent or more of the spectrum unusable for 5G services. This would be poor spectrum management and result in restricted 5G deployments in Europe and globally, needlessly wasting a scarce public resource.
The socio-economic benefits of 5G at risk
Restricting the roll out of ultra-fast 5G networks puts at risk the large socioeconomic benefits citizens and businesses are expected to gain from 5G. The mobile industry is expected to add $565 billion to global GDP and $152 billion in tax revenue from 2020 to 2034 from mmWave spectrum alone. Countries risk losing out on these gains if mobile operators don’t get access to this vital spectrum.
“We are asking Europe and other countries around the world not to let a campaign of misinformation close the door on a new world of possibilities that 5G will bring,” added Tarnutzer. “From mobile broadband at fibre-like speeds to the home to digital factories and precision surgery – without mmWave spectrum, none of these use cases will reach their full potential. Making decisions on 5G that aren’t based on the facts will seriously undermine the potential impact of 5G on communities and economies.”
