A telecom event on Sunday tried an innovative initiative by asking Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy to inaugurate the function through mobile phone, but had to witness initial hiccups due to the call drop problem.
Chandy was to inaugurate this event through mobile after he could not reach the venue, hence he connected over phone. "There were two things that we saw today in CM's address. One he was able to connect to the conference even after bad weather. "The other thing is his call dropped because signal levels are lower in the country because of low radiation emitted by mobile towers," telecom regulator TRAI member R K Arnold said while speaking at the event.
At the event on mobile telephone and public health, Chandy could not reach the venue as his helicopter had to land in Ooty due to bad weather. "Stringent standards have been adopted in India for mobile radiation by India than preferred in US and Europe. There is misinformation among common public which I believe this event will help to resolve," he said.
Telecom industry body Cellular Operators Association of India said that call drop happened because there are impediments that check smooth roll-out of telecom networks. "Telecom operators struggle to get Right of Way permission to lay out fibres building network. Another big block is people opposing installation mobile of towers because of misinformation and apprehension they have. There is no study that scientifically proves health hazard from mobile tower radiation," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said. He added that telecom operators in India are required to put more mobile towers as compared to companies in the US and Europe because of spectrum crunch.
With a court order finding no scientific evidence of health hazard from mobile tower radiation, the Department of Telecom has directed its vigilance wing to expedite awareness among public to ease roll-out of telecom networks. "The DoT has directed TERM cell across country to conduct workshops, interact with media and (take) other steps to allay fear among general public on radiation from mobile towers," an official DOT source said.
Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cells monitor compliance of rules framed by the government. "In case of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Gujarat High Court has noticed that surveys conducted in proximity to the base station indicated that the public was exposed to extremely low intensity radio frequency in the environment and all the evidences indicated that they were unlikely to pose the risk to health," the DoT source said.
According to Cellular Operators of Association of India, over 1,000 mobile towers at various places across the country have been removed in last few years following protest from civil groups as they apprehend that radiation from mobile towers have health hazard. The government has reduced permissible level of radiation from mobile towers by 90 per cent as compared to radiation norms released by global body The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
As per DoT guidelines, if a mobile tower has 1 antenna, it should be installed at minimum distance of 20 metres from a house, in case of 2 antennas minimum distance should be 35 metres, for 4 antennas it should be 45 metres and for 6 antennas the minimum distance should be 55 metres. The guidelines say that there should be no building parallel to antenna and height of the antenna should be at least 5 metres above ground or roof top level.
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