Telecommunications company Go may be doubling the number of mobile phone transmitting antennas, but a company spokesman insists this will lead to fewer base stations and a lower power output.
“While we are doubling the number of antennas, the actual number of base stations will go down by about 30 per cent while still improving the coverage for both 2G and 3G,” the spokesman said. This would be possible, she added, because the new antennas would handle both 2G and 3G telephony transmissions necessitating fewer base stations.
Last week, the company ann-ounced a multimillion euro investment to overhaul its mobile phone network by teaming up with Nokia Siemens Networks.
The company, however, was reluctant to divulge specific information about the number of base stations it operates today, describing this as “commercially sensitive” data.
With over 2,200 antennae of the different network operators, Malta, according to research, has one of the highest concentrations of electromagnetic smog in Europe – 10 times the density in the UK.
The company also refrained from giving details on the power output of its base stations with the spokesman saying base stations operated on “very different power levels” depending on the location and the area they were meant to cover.
“As a general rule, we do not use a higher power output than is absolutely necessary for a reliable connection between mobile phones and the base station,” she said.
When asked about the health concerns raised by the company’s decision to double its mobile network antennas, the spokesman directed The Times to the Malta Communications Authority website, which carries a question and answer section on mobile phone radio frequencies. However, a link on the website that is supposed to provide the radio frequency audit results of base stations around Malta conducted by the regulator was not functional yesterday.
According to the website, the results should be sorted out geographically by locality and displayed in a colour-coded grid so people can immediately tell whether antennae in their locality are transmitting power at an acceptable level or not.
The Go spokesman insisted that the higher number of antennas would mean a lower output for each base station.
“In simple terms, we can compare the power output to a person shouting at someone else. The closer the two people are, the less they have to shout to be heard. So even though emissions – which are monitored and findings published by the MCA – are well below maximum safety levels, the new set-up will require less output.”
She said that if the distance between antennas was halved, the output power required would “only be 25 per cent of the former level”.
According to the MCA website, updated on August 11, the watchdog has commissioned the Malta National Laboratory to conduct onsite surveys of the radiation levels emitted from all mobile phone base-station antennae.
The audits are being carried out over a period of three years with one of the main objectives being to ensure antennae are emitting radiation at levels within the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines.
In June, the Council of Europe issued a new draft resolution calling for a ban on the use of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology in all schools in its 47 member states, including Malta. It argued that mobile phones should be banned from schools to protect children from potentially harmful wireless signals.
Environmental health director John Attard Kingswell had said there was no cause for alarm and stressed that Malta was following developments closely.
The report insisted European governments should “take all reasonable measures to reduce exposure to electro-magnetic fields” emitted from wireless devices, including mobile phones.
Expert opinion is divided on the health risks associated with electromagnetic radiation and no conclusive decision has been reached.
This year, the World Health Organisation warned that mobile phone use could increase possible cancer risk. Before this announcement, WHO had always assured consumers no adverse health effects had been established.
A working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries meeting at WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said a review of all the available scientific evidence suggested mobile phone use should be classified as “ possibly carcinogenic” in the same category as coffee.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com