Wednesday, February 19, 2014

DoT won't take take parliamentary committee's report lightly: Deora


DoT won’t take Parliamentary committee’s report lightly: Deora

UNIFORMITY If a national policy is formulated, there may be no separate local policy for each state A NATIONAL POLICY, AS RECOMMENDED BY THE COMMITTEE, IS MANDATORY. BUT IF FORMULATING THE GUIDELINES WILL TAKE TIME, THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD AT LEAST START RE

growth of the telecom sector, it has resulted in disputes between the telecom service providers and local authorities leading to the filing of petitions in various courts across the country.”
PICTURE FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE The committee has uploaded the detailed report on norms for installation of mobile towers and its harmful impact on its website.
If a national policy is formulated based on the committee’s recommendations, it is likely that there will be no separate local policy for each state or corporation.
Currently, there is no uniform policy for the installation of mobile towers in the state. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been revising its policy since the past two years; however, the policy is yet to be implemented.
“While we will see the committee’s report in a positive light, it is too early to comment on specific recommendations,” Deora said.

Letter PR Munshi (on parliament comm.)








Dear All,

Please find time to read the scathing Report of Parliamentary Standing Committee ( IT ) on
NORMS FOR THE SETTING UP OF TELECOM TOWERS , ITS HARMFUL EFFECTS AND SETTING UP OF SECURITY STANDARDS IN EXPANSION OF TELECOM FACILITIES.

The Standing Committee headed by Shri Rao Inderjit Singh has done an excellent job covering all aspects and met so many different stakeholders , experts , citizen groups and given their findings without mincing any words . Congratulations !

The Report vindicates the Stand taken by CITIZEN GROUPS OF MUMBAI who were represented at the Hearing by Juhi Chawla Mehta, Veena Singhal and Prakash Munshi.

The Committee finds it most unfortunate that the Government has failed to take any step to regulate this infrastructure sector as well as to address the public apprehensions about impact on their health. The Committee strongly deprecate the lackadaisical approach of the Department of Telecommunications which is the nodal department for expansion and modernisation of mobile telephony.

The examination of the subject by the Committee has revealed several areas of public concern which needs to be addressed by the Government at the earliest.

Every page of the Report is critical of the functioning of the Department of Telecommunications and corrective action needs to be taken.

This issue will become an Election issue 2014.

The weblink for the Report:

2. Click on LOK SABHA
3.Click on Committees on Left Column
4.Click on   Departmentally Related Standing Committees
5.Scroll down to Information Technology in Red
6.Scroll down on Reports to Report No.53 tabled in Parliament in Rajya Sabha 
   and Lok Sabha on February 12, 2014.

Let the Parliament elected Of the People , For the People, By the People discuss this important Report which will affect the lives of millions Indian Citizens . Parliament has discussed many scams and will discuss many more in next 3 months but it is high time the Parliamentarians ACT on this report to protect the health of millions of Indians.

Regards

Prakash R Munshi
3 Raj Niketan
Opp. Sahyadri State Guest House
B G Kher Marg
Mumbai 400006
Tel : 022 23685256
Cell : +91 98204 00053 ( sms please )

Indian Telecoms Tower Dilema



Telecom companies need to set up more towers to handle the growing voice & data traffic
Kalyan Parbat & Gulveen Aulakh, ET Bureau Feb 13, 2014, 04.15AM IST
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(Spooked by radiation concerns,…)
The ongoing battle for telecom radiowaves, via online auctions, in three of the largest markets in India— Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata—has an intriguing sub-plot: what it means for the tower infrastructure of the two largest incumbent operators there, Bharti and Vodafone.
Both companies have spectrum, as these radiowaves are called, in these cities in the 900 MHz band. If they lose the pitched battle they are engaged in with other operators, chiefly Reliance Jio, to retain this spectrum, they will have to migrate to the 1,800 MHz band. Since this band is a little more than half as efficient as 900 MHz, the migration will need them to invest more in cellular towers to maintain coverage. Such retooling is inconvenient. It's also increasingly difficult, especially in the top 20-25 cities, which are already tower sprawls and whose residents are doing a U-turn on these easy-money propositions.
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Reports linking telecom radiation to medical problems, despite assurances from authorities to the contrary, have scared away property owners. Even local authorities have become reluctant to give clearances.
"When the sector was in growth mode, we could easily acquire 1,500 sites a month; now, that has crashed to under 100," says Sunil Kanoria, MD of Viom Networks, India's second-largest tower company, with 42,000 towers in all circles.
For telecom operators, it's a double blow. In urban areas, they are facing consumer ire for congested voice networks and not investing enough in them. And now, they are realising that, even if they want to, they can't do so at will. "We definitely see greater lead times in our current site acquisitions," says a director of a large global telecom operator with a big India footprint, not wanting to be named.
With data consumption rising, this company planned to invest in 8,000 new sites this year to build a robust 3G network. Companies like this are now, instead, considering other options: more tower sharing, another option that allows for remote presence but means laying more fibre, and using wireless networks.
Radiation Scare
A telecom tower, or broadly a base station, is what enables a call at the local mile. It sends and receives radio signals from a mobile phone. A large number of towers put together form a network. The greater the traffic on a network, the higher the capacity it needs in its base stations to avoid calls not going through or being dropped. But there's no appetite among property owners to have them perched on rooftops.
http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/30306929.cmsAccording to Umang Das, directorgeneral of Tower & Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), tower infrastructure providers are "literally on tenterhooks as their rollout plans are subject to arbitrary decisions of state authorities and municipalities". TAIPA is an industry grouping that represents tower firms, including Indus Towers, Viom Networks , Bharti Infratel, GTL and Reliance Infratel.
TAIPA says the government has tightened radiation emission rules for towers—dropping limits to a tenth of the international norm—but the message has not gone down to public. "Vast sections of people now, unfortunately, believe towers are dangerous," says a top executive of a leading European mobile operator, who did not wish to be named. Adds nuclear scientist KS Parthasarathy, ex-secretary of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and an expert on electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions: "Public perception on the alleged adverse effects of cell-tower radiation is totally skewed due to motivated propaganda of scaremongers with vested interests out to sell their radio-protective accessories."
Creating Awareness
The department of telecommunications (DoT), the government entity in charge of setting radiation norms for telecom towers, says its jurisdiction is limited. In an August 8, 2013 letter to chief secretaries of states and union territories, DoT asked them to put no restrictions on tower installations in residential areas, educational institutions or hospitals as radiation concerns had been addressed by lowering limits. "But local municipalities and state authorities continue to follow their own rules," rues Das of TAIPA.
Uma Shankar, joint secretary at DoT, says the issue is more about consumer education. "We issue advisories, but it is up to each state government or local body to define its boundary conditions since there are different levels of concerns (on radiation emissions) across cities and states, and getting permission for setting up towers is under their ambit," he says. Another DoT official, who declined to be named, added that the health ministry must chip in to educate the public and address concerns on tower safety.
Prominent resident welfare associations (RWAs), which have been trenchant campaigners against cell-tower radiation, believe telecom companies, DoT and state authorities need to do more to address public concerns. "Although there is no conclusive proof that tower radiation is harmful, people have grown uneasy and are looking for guidance from all government agencies," says Veena Singhal, chairperson of the Pedder Road Residents' Association, an RWA in South Mumbai. "This is especially so after several cancer deaths were reported in prominent bui ldings in upmarket South Mumbai locations, which coincidentally faced buildings with a massive bunch of cellular antennae."
The country's highest court is currently hearing petitions filed by two industry lobbies challenging a Rajasthan High Court order that directed telcos to remove towers from schools, hospitals, jails and heritage buildings. "How do you expect a telecom company in Rajasthan to provide reasonable quality of service, or no drop rates or no channel congestion, if your towers are being removed by courts?" Rahul Khullar, chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, told ET recently. The next hearing of that case is on February 17. Das feels the Supreme Court's verdict could set a precedent on tower location and operations.
Even as that happens, Singhal says, the government and telecom companies need to find ways to reduce towers without compromising coverage quality. The industry is exploring alternatives, starting by sharing capacity more on existing towers rather than setting up fresh towers. Besides that, companies are exploring four other options. One, they are scouting for tower sites in non-residential, commercial zones.
Two, they are looking to offload data traffic on their wireless networks. Three, they are considering innovations like base station (BTS) hotels in places where there are curbs on installing high telecom towers.
Mohit Rana, partner at AT Kearney, a telecom consultancy, says BTS hotels have worked well in Indonesia and can be a solution in India too. It, typically, involves micro antennae installed at low heights and linked through fibre to a centralised location about a km away where base stations of multiple operators are housed. "A BTS hotel can work in a place like Lutyens' Delhi, where there are curbs on building high telecom towers," says Rana.
A fourth option is to set up lowemission micro sites. "A possible solution to mitigate site acquisition challenges could be putting up smaller cells with lower radiation levels, apart from self-certification," says BK Syngal, the former chairman of VSNL, who is now a telecom consultant at Dua Consulting. Since these are smaller than towers, micro sites emit less radiation, but they also offer reduced signal strength, thus affecting coverage.
In Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, much hinges on the auctions, and whether Bharti and Vodafone can retain spectrum in the 900 MHz band. "Where they have to migrate to 1,800 MHz, they will need to reorganise their networks and manage the transition period," says Rana. "However, such reorganisation will not require significant investments in new towers. In dense urban areas, the 900 MHz networks are designed for capacity and can function on 1,800 MHz with some in-fill sites." In the days ahead, the auction results and the court verdict should provide some clarity.


Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Letter Power Density



This figure shows various health hazards at different power density levels.
The vertical axis shows power density in microwatts/m2, it can be converted to  milliwatts/m2 by dividing the vertical scale by 1000.
For example, horizontal line corresponding to 100 microwatts/m2 is equivalent to 0.1  milliwatts/m2. Various health hazards just above this level are: headaches, concentration and sleep problems, fatigue, etc. Whereas, in India, we have adopted 450  milliwatts/m2, which is 4500 times higher.
Similarly, horizontal line corresponding to 1000 microwatts/m2 is equivalent to 1  milliwatts/m2. Various health hazards at this level are: adverse neuro, cardio effects, and increased cancer risk, etc. Whereas, in India, we have adopted 450  milliwatts/m2, which is 450 times higher.

This figure shows various health hazards with residential distance to towers. As one moves away from the towers, health hazards decreased.

mobile tower/base station policy of maharashtra govt.





suresh karve
21 Jan (6 days ago)
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to girish, me
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Sir,
I have been called for hearing of above subject on 27 th January2014 between11am to1pm.
I had sent the draft of my objections/suggestions to you earlier.that has been already submitted.Now if you have any further suggestions please send them to me in a printable format at earliest.I am particularly interested in proving the point that even the reduced level of power density of 0.45w/sq.meter  w.e.f.1st sept.2013 there are many diseases which affect humans at a very low level of powerdensityand therfore powerdensity needs to be reduced drastically. Particularly from Dr.Girish kumar ,I would like it in a tabulated format e.g.Disease,powerdensity at which it occured, no of times low as compared to 0.45w/sq.meter.
Sir,   I know it is in one of your slideshows but the govt.officials who will be hearing are town planning people.They need something which they can understand otherwise will get confused between milliwatts and microwatts and watts.therefore this request.
with best wishes,
Suresh Karve
Prof. Girish Kumar
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to suresh, me
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Dear Suresh Karve,

Thanks for your following email. I have attached a file health-hazards-at-different-power-density-levels.docx

Wishing you all the best for hearing.

**********************************************************************
     Girish Kumar
     Professor, Electrical Engineering Department
     I.I.T. Bombay, Powai, Mumbai - 400076, INDIA
     Tel. - (022) 2576 7436, Fax  - (022) 2572 3707
     email-
gkumar@ee.iitb.ac.in, prof.gkumar@gmail.com
     Blog -
http://profgirishkumar.blogspot.in/
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