Lok Sabha Question No. 2653 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-01-03
Subject: Radiations From Mobile Towers
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: R. VANAROJA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2653 TO BE ANSWERED ON  3 RD  JANUARY, 2018

## RADIATIONS FROM MOBILE TOWERS

2653. SHRIMATI VANAROJA R.:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  one  lakh  new  towers  are  required  annually  to  expand  and  provide  seamless services across the country including 4G and proposed 5G and internet of things;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  study  on  ill-effects  of  mobile  tower radiations and if so, the details and the outcome thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) & (b) Presently,  three  generations  of  mobile  services  -  2G,  3G  and  4G  have  been made available for commercial use in the country. In order to provide access to the subscribers, Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  install  necessary  telecom  equipment  including  towers throughout the country. Further, TSPs make use of different spectrum bands such as 800 MHz, 900  MHz,  1800  MHz,  2100  MHz,  2500  MHz  for  providing  mobile  services.  As  per  radiopropagation characteristics, each spectrum band has different area of radio-coverage. Besides, number of mobile subscribers have been gradually increasing and the demand pattern from the subscribers may also vary depending upon time and location.

Further, local access provided by a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) serves many mobile users at a time and therefore, the data speed and resources are shared by such concurrent users.

In order to ensure interest of mobile subscribers, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has prescribed technical benchmarks for assessing performance of mobile networks on regular  basis.  However,  no  annual  target  has  been  prescribed  by  TRAI  in  terms  of  mobile towers to be installed for mobile services in the country.

To expand the mobile network coverage across the country in effective and time-bound manner, the Department has taken many initiatives including.

- (i) making available sufficient spectrum for mobile services- auction of 965 MHz in 2016,
- (ii) allowing  Spectrum  Sharing,  Trading  and  liberalisation  of  administratively  allocated spectrum as per the guidelines to facilitate efficient utilisation,
- (iii) permitting  sharing  of  active  as  well  as  passive  infrastructure  by  the  telecom  service providers for achieving higher efficiency,
- (iv) notification of Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 for regulating underground infrastructure (optical fibre) and over-ground infrastructure (mobile towers),

- (v) facilitating  use  of  Government  estate  for  installation  of  mobile  towers  on  multiplesharing basis,
- (vi) periodic review of expansion of mobile networks and related improvements carried out by  the  service  providers-  leading  to  addition  of  around  6.35  lakh  additional  Base Transceiver  Stations  (BTS)  on  aggregate  basis  for  2G/3G/4G  services  during  the period- July 2015 to November 2017. As on 1st December 2017, 645396 numbers of 2G BTSs, 353845 nos. of 3G & 676462 nos. of 4G BTSs, with the total of 16.75 lakhs of BTS are installed throughout the country.

(c) The Government has considered the issue and has conducted the following studies to understand possibility of ill effects of mobile tower radiations:

- (i) An  Inter-Ministerial committee  (IMC) consisting of officers from Department  of Telecommunications (DoT),  Indian  Council  of  Medical  Research  (Ministry  of  Health), Department Of Bio Technology and Ministry of Environment and Forest, constituted on 24.8.2010, examined the environmental and health related concerns and  has indicated that  the  most  of  the  laboratory  studies  were  unable  to  find  a  direct  link  between exposer to radio frequency radiation and health; and the scientific studies as yet have not  been  able  to  confirm  a  cause  and  effect  relationship  between  radio  frequency radiation and health..
- (ii) Based  on  the  recommendation  of  the  IMC,  norms  for  exposer  limit  for  the  radio frequency field (Base station emissions) have been made more  stringent and reduced to  1/10 th of  the  existing  limits  prescribed  by  the  International  Commission  on  Non Ionizing  Radiation  Protection(ICNIRP).  Necessary  direction  has  been  issued  to  the Mobile Operators by DoT.
- (iii) A committee constituting members from Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) Kharagpur, Kanpur, Delhi, Roorkee, Bombay and from other scientific institutions of the country including Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and All India Institute of Medical  Science  (AIIMS)  Delhi  was  formed.  After  due  consideration  of  the  human health concerns on account of EMF radiation being raised in public and the Report of the  Committee,  the  Government  has  decided  in  February  2014  that  the  present prescribed precautionary EMF safe exposure limits are adequate and need no further change at this stage.

Making  the  norms  ten  times  stricter  than  what  has  been  prescribed  by  ICNIRP  and recommended by WHO, obviates the need for having separate norm for special localities like schools,  hospitals  and  residential  areas.  Further,  Government  of  India  has  taken  adequate steps to ensure that Telecommunications Service Providers strictly adhere to these prescribed norms.

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