If you wondered whether a solution to this impasse on mobile towers in Goa would ever present itself, you can breathe a little easier. After a furore created by some people in South Goa, over towers to be erected for the BRICS summit and for other purposes, an inspection by the Department of Telecom found that radiation levels from towers across South Goa was about just two percent of the prescribed limits set by the Department. Incidentally, the limits set by the DoT is just 10 percent of the prescribed limits worldwide. So one can imagine just how low the radiation levels are in South Goa right now.
DoT has set limits of 450 milliwatts per square metre (mW/sqm). The highest levels were recorded in Chicalim, which were 17 mW/sqm. The average, recorded along villages like Betalbatim, Cavelossim, Majorda, Velim, Bogmalo and others, was 8.26 mW/sqm. This shows that there is no foundation in the argument by many that these towers were endangering the lives of people in Goa.
So what now? If there is absolutely no basis to the radiation endangering lives argument can we start moving towards a better connected future? Goa, not just because it’s a tourist destination, but in general too, needs better connectivity. Call drops are one thing, there are several places across the state where there is poor network or no network at all. People in these areas are crying out for more towers.
The government will definitely use this to their advantage, as is there wont. But there is also a need to start educating and sensitizing people about this new development, so that we won’t have needless protests against mobile towers in the future regarding this problem.
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Mobile towers do not cause cancer. There has not been one case till today that medically proves mobile tower radiation causes cancer. The equipment that is manufactured and put together at the sites have gains set to levels that so as not to harm humans and there is no chance of anyone getting hurt. All the mobile towers causing cancer talks are hoaxes. We need more mobile towers . The new spectrums need more cell circles to give you more bandwidth and less radiation levels. So more the cells, less gain. So people can stop whining about then getting cancer from mobile towers -Kevin D'Souza, Anjuna
I think it's brilliant that people are concerned about the environment and are actually protesting against it , a huge thumbs up to them for being eco friendly. At the same time we need our connectivity, we need to develop. There are certain places where you don't get connectivity and it does get annoying at times. We need to think about the greater, if it's causing harm to the environment then it's a big NO NO. If they aren't cutting down trees or anything, then I suppose it should be alright - Noah D'Silva, Ribandar
As an entrepreneur based in Porvorim, which is quite an urban area, even I have bad connectivity. Given that our bread and butter depends on the internet nowadays, I think it’s our right to have better access. Also, considering that the world’s expectations of mobile telephony are much higher than ours in India, I think international as well as domestic tourists would also expect better networks. So I would appeal to those protesting to look at the bigger picture, if the DoT survey shows that mobile tower emissions are within prescribed limits.
Sapna Shahani, PR professional
Any electronic item radiates some frequency or the other. Today everyone uses cellphones simply because they are so convenient and hence, network infrastructure is a huge necessity. The South Goa coastal belt has the least coverage from every telecom operator. Just yesterday, on my way I checked the network speed near Maria Hall in Benaulim and I found that it was between the range of 0.22-0.45. This is absolutely nothing. Average data speeds is easily around 3 Mbps. 4G speeds in Margao are around 7-8 Mbps and even higher. This is the era of digital world and we Goans cant afford to be left out . Also, remember that lesser the range and battery, higher the frequency. Perhaps, all the operators could come together and install towers in one place.
Alison Morenas, Margao
