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 Tonight: We break down this massive 5G mess. Plus, why hedge fund sharks are circling around Kohl's. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

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If you're confused about all the 5G headlines flooding your news feed this week, you're not alone. There have been a ton of developments over the past 48 hours, creating a situation one airline president called "one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible" snafus he's ever seen. 

 

On Tuesday afternoon, after a monthslong standoff with airlines and safety regulators, AT&T and Verizon activated their 5G networks but agreed to delay the rollout near some — but not all — airports. (Which ones, and why not all? We're still trying to figure that out. Safe flying!)

 

Amid the uncertainty over safety, several international airlines were scrambling to modify or cancel flights to the United States.  

 

Key background: 

Airlines have been pleading with the telecom companies to delay the rollout of next-generation 5G mobile technology, warning of potentially catastrophic consequences for air safety. Namely, airlines worry that 5G cellular antennas near airports could distort readings from radar altimeters, which tell pilots how far they are from the ground. So, like, pretty essential.  

 

Are the 5G antennas actually dangerous? 

Depends on whom you ask. The telecom industry has said the fears are unfounded, citing successful 5G rollouts in 40 other countries (though it's worth noting that those countries are using other mitigating tactics to prevent interference, such as restricting the placement of 5G antennas near airfields and requiring them to be tilted downward to limit potential interference with aircraft.)

 

But the Federal Aviation Authority has raised concerns that the 5G service could distort cockpit readings because it operates on a similar frequency as radar altimeters.

 

Quick aviation primer: In good weather, pilots use an altimeter that measures air pressure to tell how far off the ground they are. But in bad weather, "funky things can happen with air pressure readings, so they use radar instead," CNN Business' transportation editor Michael Ballaban tells me.

 

Adding even more complication to all of this: There are different kinds of radar altimeter models used in various aircraft. As of Wednesday, the FAA had cleared 62% of US commercial airliners to land safely in airports where the 5G signal is present. 

  

Why is there a potential problem in the United States, but not elsewhere?  

 

When radio-wave frequencies get too close to one another, they can interfere with one another (like when you're grooving down the highway to Top 40 on 99.5 and those jerks over at 99.7 playing Kenny G start messing with your Rihanna). 

 

In Europe, for example, the 5G service uses lower-range frequencies than in the United States – so they can't interfere with altimeters.

 

As for how to remedy the United States' woes, Nicholas Calio, president and CEO of Airlines for America, told CNN: "The fix basically is working out where the bandwidth is, the amount of power used, the tilt of the antennas, the placement of the antennas," he said. "There are mitigations that can be put in place, it's just going to take time to do it.  The fix can be almost immediate — tower by tower."

 

Don't we already use 5G? 

 

Yes and no. Telecom companies have rolled out 5G networks to various locations across the United States over the last few years, delivering an experience that's arguably only a notch above what 4G offers. But on Wednesday, Verizon and AT&T turned on their C-band (technobabble for "the relevant frequencies we've been discussing") — and that's the 5G people have been buzzing about.  

 

I mean, 5G is a good thing: If 3G is a two-lane highway, 5G is a 12-lane superhighway, my colleague Samantha Murphy Kelly explains. AT&T and Verizon customers using a 5G-compatible phone in areas with these new airwaves will be able to, for example, stream a Netflix movie in 4K resolution or download a movie in seconds. 

 

But, like, it's not worth the chance of planes falling out of the sky. Right?

 

For more on the 5G mess, my colleague Jackie Wattles has you covered.

  #️⃣ NUMBER OF THE DAY

$390 million

Activision Blizzard's embattled CEO, Bobby Kotick, has spent the past several months defending his handling of sexual harassment and discrimination claims and resisting pressure from his own staff for him to resign. Now, under the terms of Microsoft's nearly $70 billion acquisition of the video game maker, Kotick stands to walk away with a $390 million windfall.  

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