Aviation Industry Speeds Up Estimated Gear Replacement Timeline
Airplane components will need to be replaced to accommodate mobile carriers in the upper C-band.
WASHINGTON, March 27, 2026 – The aviation industry can replace critical airplane components faster than previously anticipated, companies and industry groups told the Federal Communications Commission Thursday.
Airplane altimeters, critical components that measure a plane’s altitude, need to be swapped out for next-generation gear before mobile carriers can use upper C-band spectrum, which Congress directed the FCC to auction before July 2027. The upper C-band sits at 3.98-4.2 GigaHertz (GHz), and the current altimeters that operate just above that band can't accommodate any adjacent mobile operations.
Once new altimeter standards are finalized, the airline industry now estimates it can retrofit many of the most essential aircraft by the end of 2029, and finish those by the end of 2030. Lower priority business and government aircraft would take at least two years longer under the plan.
That’s compared to the initial deadline of mid-2032 and final deadline of 2035 the industry had estimated for priority aircraft when the Federal Aviation Administration took comments on the issue earlier this month.
The faster estimates hinge primarily on extra funding from auction proceeds, the aviation groups said. It would also require new altimeter manufacturing to be consistent and the FAA to adopt rules allowing for retrofits during overnight maintenance.
Total replacement costs could total anywhere from $4.5 billion to $7 billion, airlines have said, and more than 58,000 units would ultimately need to be replaced.
Wireless carriers have told the FCC they disagree with some of the modeling the FAA used for its proposed operating standards for the new altimeters. The carriers say the assumptions were too conservative and some restrictions could be loosened without compromising safety, while the aviation industry backed the FAA’s analysis.
Incumbent satellite providers, broadcasters
In order to sell off part of the upper C-band, the video distribution services the band is currently used for would have to be repacked or provided another way.
The FCC has proposed auctioning as much as 180 megahertz. SES, the main incumbent, told the agency it should cap the auction at 160 megahertz earlier this year.
Should the agency sell more than 100 megahertz – the statutory minimum – SES representatives told FCC staff in a March 17 meeting that the company would have to launch new satellites to maintain its level of service. Those satellites would use Ku-band satellite spectrum.
Eutelsat, another incumbent, said the same in comments and in a March 23 meeting with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and his staff.
Eutelsat said it could clear 60 megahertz in 18 months, 130 megahertz within 42 months, and that anything more than that would take 54 months.
Broadcasters, for their part, are uneasy about the quality of their service being diminished. The National Association of Broadcasters wants the auction limited to 100 megahertz to avoid as much disruption as possible.
PSSI, a company that provides live event video distribution services, said in a March 25 presentation for space bureau staff that it had “existential concerns” about its ability to continue providing service without the upper C-band access it has today.
“Nothing matches the ubiquity, reliability, and flexibility of C-band for service quality and dependability,” the company wrote. “No other transmission alternatives to C-band are comparable.”
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