The European Union accepts calls on flights . Passengers will be able to use their phones during flights. The question is how come ?

Airplanes will be provided with 5G technology on board, so passengers will no longer put there phones or any other electronic devices into Airplane mode. The member states in the European Union were assigned to provide Frequency bands by the 30th June 2023.

One can stream their music like Hip hop on various online music platforms during their flights. The European Union Commissioner, Thierry Breton believes that these services shall enable European companies to grow and improve on more services.

The End of Airplane mode ?

Since 2008 European Commission has reserved certain frequency bands for Air crafts but the services have been slow because they have been connecting those on ground and those up in the air(flights). The new system will support both air and ground services without any interferences. So people won’t need to turn their gadgets to airplane mode cause 5G has strong frequency bands there will be no interferences. The usual advice has been if your on a flight turn off your phone to avoid risks.

There has still been a concern in the United States that 5G frequences could still interfere with the flights especially if mobile devices are used leading to erroneous attitude measurements. But this isn’t an issue in the UK and the European Union because there are different frequencies for 5G having lower power settings than those in the US.

The traveling public wants 5G , but there will be steps to be taken to ensure that whatever is done is safe.

Is Uganda ready for this?

Uganda is still on the 4G network which isn’t quite first. The only East African country with 5G internet network is Kenya. 5G network is very good because it has 100 times higher internet rates and can accommodate 1 million devices per kilometer.

Few Ugandans have smartphones so are we really ready to have 5G on our airplanes? And small portion of the world is covered with the network…. no need to rush. There is still time to catchup and develop.

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Julian Namaganda

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