NEWS The government is commissioning research into future developments in mobile phone technology and needs for more mobile masts.
The research will also look at the potential for mobile operators to share masts.
Planning Minister Yvette Cooper said: "It is important to identify the future direction of mobile phone technology in order to inform policy development and to respond to public interest in this area."
There is a continuing debate over the health impact of using mobile phones and living close to mobile phone masts.
The Mobile Operators Association (MOA) said in a statement to silicon.com: "Operators share both sites and masts where possible. It is cheaper to share rather than build a new mast each time. However it is not always technically possible and a shared mast may not be possible for planning reasons."
Shared masts also tend to be taller and more sturdy than unshared masts because of the amount of hardware they have to carry.
"Local Authority planners and councillors may prefer shorter structures that minimise the visual impact on the environment," the MOA added.
The research will consider the effectiveness of the Sitefinder database, maintained by Ofcom, which provides information on all cellular radio transmitters and their emissions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Probably a bit late..
In the last month 2 phone masts have appeared on oposite sides of the road outside my house. They look almost identical and can't be more than 20 yards apart.
2. EMJ
Unfortunately while superficially attractive wireless networks just don't work like that. Any new mast has to fit in with an operators existing infrastructure and expecting a happy co-incidence of channel allocation, power output and network fit for any given site is stretching co-incidence. It will happen - in a minority of sites - but it's nowhere near a panacea.
3. Simon Bazley
The ideal solution with the mobile networks would be a massive increase in the number of urban masts with a corresponding decrease in their power output. The technology is more than capable of having overlapping cells to a degree that would allow at least some mast sharing.
The biggest problem is public perception. Nobody really knows for sure if masts are dangerous or not, but anyone with a reasonable understanding of Physics and Maths can make a fairly informed opinion about the likely exposure you're going to get from a mast at a given range given it's power output.
The fact that most transmitters are less than 60W is a fact that is rarely published, but it does put a big questionmark over the mass hysteria everyone has about them.
Still that said having even lower powered transmitters can only be a good thing.
4. Phillip Watts
I live twenty feet, from a nintey foot mast, with orange, 121, 02 3g, tetra,UMTS, and four other systems belonging to central networkselectricity (Ion), the effects of all those side lobes coming down on my house is debilitating, I have had to spend in excess of £2500.00 on sreening materials in order to maintain my health, the latest addition of tetra and mmo2 3g have been the worst,so when these companies and the goverment say there is no health effects, its simply not true, I challenge any one be it government ,NRPB, or cellular director, to come and stay at my house and see how long it takes for them to get Ill.