BERN, Switzerland -- Four Swiss mobile phone operators called on the government on Friday to allow site-sharing of antennas to limit costs and at the same time safeguard people from "electrosmog," a potentially damaging form of radiation.
"Without these proposals, Switzerland would become an oasis in Europe with no mobile telecommunications," Swisscom Chief Executive Jens Alder told a news conference.
Electrosmog is the popular name for non-ionizing radiation by mobile telecom antennas that some fear could damage health.
The Swiss environmental agency BUWAL set new rules on electrosmog emissions in March which, operators say, are 10 times as strict as guidelines by the World Health Organization.
Swisscom, TDC, Orange and Telefonica Movile say they are not fighting the radiation limits in principle but have drawn up their own proposals on measurement methods and procedures that would enable site-sharing of antennas.
Andreas Wetter, head of Orange in Switzerland, said the BUWAL guidelines did in practice ban any site-sharing and would lead to "forests of antennas" in Switzerland.
He said the guidelines would lead to "exorbitant" costs which would make mobile telecommunications so expensive in Switzerland that people would cease to use them. For his company alone, he estimated the costs at 500 million Swiss francs ($300 million) to adjust current GSM antennas to the new guidelines.
Installation of 3G antennas for the new generation of high-capacity mobile telecommunications would become almost impossible especially for Telefonica, which currently has no antennas at all in the country. Telefonica won a 3G license but is not a GSM license-holder in Switzerland.
The operators are seeking a constructive dialogue with BUWAL and said they were not on a collision course.
The main bone of contention is measuring electrosmog.
While BUWAL proposes rules based on theoretical values and on peak-radiation areas, the operators propose using averages and field measurements by independent firms.
Alder said companies and authorities needed to take account of people's fears around electrosmog, because it had not been proved one way or the other harmless or dangerous.
But he urged authorities not to be unduly influenced by minorities when awarding antenna construction permits.
.png){kind=logo}
