Mobile phone Base stations and Health Mobile Phone Base Stations and Health Go back to referring page Main Page Over half the people in Britain have mobile phones. They have antennas, mounted either on freestanding masts or on existing structures and buildings, which use radio signals similar to those used in TV and radio broadcasting.
Cells usually have a radius of several kilometres.
However, more base stations are needed where mobile phone usage is high. So, in rural areas cells can have a radius of 10 km, while in towns and cities their radius may be less than a few hundred metres. They overlap at the edges to ensure that mobile phone users remain within range of a base station. Without sufficient base stations in the right locations, mobile phones will not work. But concerns about health are sometimes expressed by people who live or work close to where they are sited.