Lampposts conceal mini cellphone transmitters

Low-power mobile phone transmitters could soon be hidden inside hundreds of lampposts and telephone poles in UK cities.

Will Knight NewScientist.com

The infrastructure arm of British Telecommunications, BT Wholesale, is currently testing the concealed low-power masts in Cardiff, Wales. If the trial is a success, similar masts are likely to be introduced in other busy cities around the UK.

BT Wholesale has already installed similar transmitters in the tops of public telephone booths in London. A couple of lampposts in the UK already conceal conventional transmitters, which are much more powerful.

The Cardiff trial involves 14 lampposts that provide extra coverage for a square kilometre in the city’s centre. The low power units only have a range of around 100 metres. But they reinforce a network’s coverage, meaning connections "drop out" less often.

The transmitters can also help to pinpoint mobile users to within a few metres, allowing network operators to provide more accurate location-based information. The system is designed to work with any mobile phone networks, not just BT’s.

Exclusion zone

But the plan may stoke controversy among campaign groups concerned about possible health effects of the radiation emitted by mobile phone transmitters.

In May 2000, former UK government chief scientist William Stewart led a government inquiry into the health effects of mobile phones and masts.

The report concluded: "that the balance of evidence indicates that there is no general risk to the health of people living near to base stations on the basis that exposures are expected to be small fractions of guidelines".

However, the report also recommended "the establishment of clearly defined physical exclusion zones around base station antennas, which delineate areas within which exposure guidelines may be exceeded".

BT points out that the new masts are 100 times less powerful than conventional masts having a maximum output of seven watts. But a spokeswoman for the UK campaign group MAST Sanity told New Scientist: "They might be low level, but no level is safe."

Groups such as MAST Sanity were enraged to discover early in October 2002 that conventional masts are already hidden behind signs at some petrol stations in the UK. Plans to allow masts to be attached to church spires in Britain were also criticised in July 2002.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992996