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The Military Communications Government United States Technology

DOD Joins Fight Against 5G Spectrum Proposal, Citing Risks To GPS (arstechnica.com) 33

Posted by BeauHD from the pros-and-cons dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Department of Defense has weighed in against a proposal before the Federal Communications Commission to open the 1 to 2 Gigahertz frequency range -- the L band -- for use in 5G cellular networks. The reason: segments of that range of radio spectrum are already used by Global Positioning System signals and other military systems. In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pressed for the rejection of the proposal by Ligado Networks (formerly known as Lightspeed), saying, "There are too many unknowns and the risks are far too great to federal operations to allow Ligado's proposed system to proceed... This could have a significant negative impact on military operations, both in peacetime and war."

The FCC has already largely brushed aside similar opposition from NASA, the US Navy, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, among others, over another spectrum block in the 24GHz range -- which is used by weather satellites for remote monitoring of water vapor. But comments are still being collected on the Ligado plan for sharing the 1675 to 1680MHz block of the L Band. Pai has been supportive of the plan because that range is adjacent to the existing 1670 to 1675MHz block already in use for wireless services. GPS signals use several blocks of the L band, including a primary channel centered on 1575.42MHz. GPS uses L band signals because of their ability to penetrate cloud cover, rain, and vegetation. The L band is also used by the DOD for a number of other purposes, including tactical air navigation, landing assistance telemetry, Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) signals, and missile range and aircraft telemetry -- though the DOD has already had to move some of these applications further up the spectrum range to make room for previous "commercial reallocation."
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DOD Joins Fight Against 5G Spectrum Proposal, Citing Risks To GPS More

DOD Joins Fight Against 5G Spectrum Proposal, Citing Risks To GPS

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  • Tough call... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CrimsonAvenger ( 580665 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @06:49PM (#59444450)

    So, if we go with this new plan, GPS may be adversely affected?

    Hmm, I think I have to vote "NO" to the new plan, then. GPS is something I need more than I need 5G.

  • So what? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Way Smarter Than You ( 6157664 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @06:58PM (#59444470)
    Who cares about weather satellites, the military, nasa, and pretty much everyone else if my next gen phone can play YouTube videos faster?! Yay, 5G!

    • Re:So what? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @07:17PM (#59444522) Journal
      Yes, WSTY, how else are you going to support the wireless companies with your even more overpriced, underperforming, bloated, surveillance-packed dataplan if you don't have unnecessary 5G? After all how are you going to watch feature-length films all day on your tiny screen with shitty little tiny speakers, even though they were shot and mixed for a full size theatre? Also your optometrist will benefit from all those new glasses you'll need after getting so much eye-strain from trying to watch those. Come on WSTY, where's your consumer spirit? ARE YOU UNAMERCAN!?
      • I am soooo American! I simply just have 5G even if every other wireless service our society relies on gets fucked! Imagine how much faster I can shop online and spend money if I had 5G? No one needs GPS, predictable weather or a military.
        • Lol, worst moderation ever! I get modded down for joking around. Rick gets modded up for playing along with same joke. Whoever modded down needs to get out of mom's basement, meet other real human beings in person and get a sense of humor. I love you nerds!
  • ..then we can get rid of him. The next POTUS will kick him out along with the rest of the current POTUS's cronies, yes-men, bootlickers, sycophants, incompetents, and outright criminals.

    • ..then we can get rid of him. The next POTUS will kick him out along with the rest of the current POTUS's cronies, yes-men, bootlickers, sycophants, incompetents, and outright criminals.

      You mean 5 more years.

      • Go play with your apps.
        And by 'apps' I mean 'go kill yourself'.
    • Bernies first day in office should start with the systematic undoing of everything Little Donny Trump did in office. Impeach the unqualified judges, remove the patronage appointments, roll back the bad regulation.
      • ..or whoever actually wins. :-)
        ..but, yes. It might take more than one full term to repair all the damage done to the country.
        Damage done to U.S. reputation with the rest of the world, especially our broken relationships with our long-time allies? May take decades. May not BE repairable. We'll just have to wait and see won't we?
        One thing is clear however: another 4 years of that fucking traitor may well wreck everything permanently, the U.S. might not recover. You want apocalypse? That's how you get an a
    • I don't know about that. There are some in the running that might get rid of them but I also feel there are some who would appreciate a good boot-licking.

  • Let's kick off those freeloaders (Score:3)

    by Larry Lightbulb ( 781175 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @07:53PM (#59444608)
    Nasa, DoD, NOAA, and all those other anti-capitalistic groups don't deserve to use that part of the spectrum when there's noble honest companies like Comcast who are ready to pay huge bribes to own it.

  • Cellular tower trangilation with 5G can pinpoint your location just as well.

    • Not actually triangulation since it uses timing to measure distance instead of angles, but we know what you mean. Too bad the multipath distortion will add a few dozen meters to your positional accuracy. Hope your AI driven car has good collision avoidance.
  • ... but have no issue going straight to the human trials. However, screw with driving directions, well that is just crossing a line.
    • Animal studies have not shown adverse affects. yet. If you are worried about health affects you should avoid power lines, like the ones in your house, as they are closer and carry much more power. We know that magnetic fields can affect cell growth, and AC power lines generate plenty of those.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sjames ( 1099 )

        They also carry a lot more power than my tiny little 800 Watt microwave, but because they're at 60 Hz, they don't cook things without actual arcing or a direct connection. 5G is a lot closer to the microwave's frequency.

        • The strength of the signal of your phone against your head is an order of tens of thousands in magnitude stronger than those you'll be exposed to from the cell site, even if you were to stand within a few feet in its direct path. When it comes to RF signal density strength drops off a cliff the further away you get and the higher the frequency the faster the drop off is per foot. Please watch this and educate yourself. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programm... [bbc.co.uk]

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sjames ( 1099 )

            I am well aware of that. I am also not paranoid of WiFi signals etc. I was simply pointing out that comparing the emissions from power lines isn't valid due to the considerable differences. Bogus arguments will only heighten the fears of skeptics.

            My objection to 5G is that it will likely interfere with weather forecasting, GPS, and other communications as well as having serious coverage problems, all so that mobile data users can hit their caps within the first few seconds of the billing cycle. A better sol

    • ... but have no issue going straight to the human trials. However, screw with driving directions, well that is just crossing a line.

      Stand directly below a 5G mobile phone mast transmitter, as in your head is a foot below it, and your exposure isn't even 2% of the safe limit. Stand directly in its path 3ft away and your exposure is barely 10% of the safe limit. Also the emissions are non-ionising meaning they can't affect electrons in the manner that would be needed to alter cells and dna. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programm... [bbc.co.uk]

  • All scaremongering nonsense. Anyone who is a radio ham who knows anything about the technical side of it in regards to receivers will agree. We already have receivers today in entry level gear with enough selectivity that they have a dynamic range of over 100dB at just 2kHz spacing, meaning they can still hear a weak signal at -120dBm that is a billion times weaker than one 2kHz away. Even piss poor mediocre receivers with 70dB dynamic range can hear a weak signal a tenth of a millionth of the strength of a

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