Portal to measure radiation

Information on radiation levels emitted by a mobile phone antenna installed in your neighbourhood, or details on the tower operator and the tower’s licenses could soon be only a click away.

Information on radiation levels emitted by a mobile phone antenna installed in your neighbourhood, or details on the tower operator and the tower’s licenses could soon be only a click away.

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The union Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is compiling data of mobile phone towers across the country in an attempt to create a common database for mobile tower locations and make this information available on an online portal. The portal will be started on a pilot basis in some metros in July and subsequently scaled up across other cities, officials said. This information could soon be available through a mobile app too.

According to DoT officials, a survey of all mobile phone towers across the country is currently being carried out. “The portal will be a platform to provide centralised data on all mobile phone towers and their electromagnetic field radiation levels,” said PK Panigrahi, senior deputy director general, DoT. “Since there are more than five lakh mobile phone towers in the country, we are in the process of compiling the information,” he added.

Cellular operators welcomed this move and claimed that a similar facility already exists in Australia and the United Kingdom. “We will provide data related to EMF levels at mobile phone tower sites. The system also has the potential to be scaled up for reporting requirements for green telecom,” said VK Cherian, senior director, Cellular Operators Association of India.