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Opposition to wireless masts continues - threat to 3G?

You could argue that 'it's just a rural community in Eire' but it seems that if Mountrath is indicative of opinions in rural communities, they still don't like phone masts.

Significant, perhaps, in local opposition to a mobile phone mast in Co Laois, is the fact that the petition against it was signed by "some 800 people, including doctors in the local health centre and teachers in the local school," according to today's report in the Irish Times.

Clearly, the mobile data industry has to hope that this will be an example of the last of such objections, if it hopes to install a completely new infrastructure of UMTS masts for 3G phone networks any time soon. The fear of "radiation" from microwave transmitters may turn out to be one of those fads which comes and then goes. Or it may be that as radiation scares fade, masts will become seen as eyesores.

What makes this story worrying is the apparent persistence of the "medical fears of microwaves" - and it's worrying both from the point of view of those who want to see third-generation phones go ahead, and equally, from those who hope that WiFi and Bluetooth can cover dense urban areas with higher data rate wireless.

So far, scare stories about WiFi are rare. But the opportunity for scaremongering does exist. WiFi access points are usually all but invisible - objections to them are unlikely on aesthetic grounds - but the fact is that users of WiFi tend to be much closer to a transmitter than users of GSM phones are. And it only takes an excitable Woman's Page Editor on a dull day to ask some bored techie "how much radiation do you actually get from WiFi compared with GSM?" and the headlines could start.

In this context, paradoxically, the UMTS story is easier. If the local population objects to a mast in the middle of their town, the mast can be put a mile away, without significantly degrading performance. Oh, sure; their phone batteries will run down faster than they might have, on average. But who in Mountrath will be aware of this?

If hostility to WiFi "radiation" starts, however, there's not a lot you can do. A range of 100m means that if you move the access point as much as 50m, you're going to pretty much make the installation pointless.

The trouble is, the only way of getting around these problems is to come up with hard evidence that microwaves don't harm humans. It isn't going to happen. Even if they don't harm humans, the evidence of a negative cannot be collected.

And the truth is, radiation has an effect on humans. Low frequency, mid frequency, high frequency, very high frequency, all the way up to X-ray; it all has an effect, and sometimes the effect is dangerous, and sometimes, it's just an effect. Infra-red's effect is to warm. Audio-frequency EM radiation has a measurable effect on exposed skin. Microwave has a heating effect. And there are other effects.

Does this mean the wireless dream is doomed?

Probably not. We've known all our lives that vehicles are dangerous. When the first motor vehicles appeared, the danger was perceived to be so great that there were laws against driving them faster than a walking pace - even that wasn't entirely safe. And then we abandoned the protection of those laws, and people died; hundreds, even thousands of people died.

If you want my personal hunch, instinct, or feeling: I think that nobody is going to die because of wireless radiation in the WLAN frequencies or cellphone bands.

But also, I think even if it could one day be proved that people die as a result of wireless networking radiation, people will still use the technology. They will carry on driving cars faster than walking pace; they will carry on smoking, they will carry on preparing alcoholic beverages, they will carry on playing rugby, riding horses, designing and using weapons, sunbathing, swimming, flying, skiing.

And making mobile phone calls, and using wireless LAN technology is, really, nowhere near as dangerous as any of those.

I think there may well be some WiFi radiation scares in the future. I think they'll make headlines. But, to be honest, I doubt it will slow the industry up by more than week.

Comments? Mail me at guy@kewney.com or phone 07831 532 848 in the +44 phone area.