TEMA Slams Radiation Restriction Delays

The Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Association (TEMA) has slammed the Indian government for postponing measures designed to keep check on the radiation levels emitted from telecom towers.

The Department of Telecommunications issued a directive on tower radiation levels, based on the recommendations from the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), in November 2011 and set April 1, 2012, as the implementation deadline. (See this document for more, including recommendations for mobile device radiation levels).

But in April that deadline was pushed out to September 1.

"We need a clear set of guidelines and implementation of the policies to curb radiation, which is causing threatening diseases like cancer to the common man," says Ashok K Aggarwal, Director-General at TEMA, the official mouthpiece of the Indian telecom manufacturing industry.

"The solution lies in deploying low-power micro-cells [with] low radiation antennas. Existing towers must be phased out in the next five years by replacing them with low-powered towers," adds Aggarwal.

The DoT directive states that at least 50 percent of all rural towers and 20 percent of the urban towers should run on hybrid power (renewable energy technology or grid power) by 2015. The guidelines mandate that 75 percent of rural towers and 33 percent of urban towers should run on hybrid power by 2020.

The guidelines also state that service providers should aim at 17 percent carbon reduction for their mobile networks by 2018-19. In its recommendation, the IMC says that the current level of electro-magnetic radiation from telecom tower needs to be reduced by 10 percent.

According to TEMA, while the steps taken by DoT are in a positive direction, it is not happy with the constant delay and says that this is impacting the credibility of the government. "If government is serious about the issue, they can implement the guidelines overnight. Any further deferment is uncalled for. It's not a joke. The government can't just run away from the social responsibility," adds Aggarwal.

TEMA has also accused the Cellular Operators Association of India of being biased, saying that the industry cannot take shelter on a controlled study. COAI had recently conducted a study which found that radiation from mobile towers is not hazardous to human beings. The study is said to have covered 300 locations in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, in partnership with the United Telecom Providers of India.

Earlier this month, TEMA had also raised objection to the subsidized diesel used by the top telcos for commercial purposes. It had written to the government to enforce strong regulatory guidelines and to withdraw the diesel subsidy given to the telecom service providers, or to alternately introduce an appropriate one-time tax-per-tower on the companies. There are around 500,000 telecom towers in the country today. (See TEMA Favors Strong Regulation For Recovery.)

Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India