5G Wireless Service Is Coming, And So Are Health Concerns Over The Towers That Support It
5G Wireless Service Is Coming, And So Are Health Concerns
Over The Towers That Support It
May 29, 2018 at 10:29 am
(CBS News/CBSNewYork) – The wireless industry is in a
race to roll out 5G service. The network is supposed to be up to 100 times
faster than current data speeds, but it requires cellphone tower equipment to
be closer to users than before. Wireless companies in the U.S. say they’ll have
to install about 300,000 new antennas – roughly equal to the total number of
cell towers built over the past three decades. That’s causing outrage and alarm
in some neighborhoods, as antennas go up around homes.
At a lab in New York, Verizon invited CBS News’ Tony
Dokoupil to meet some of the entrepreneurs developing tools to run on the next
generation of wireless technology. Jonathan Reeves, the CEO of Arvizio, said 5G
service is extremely important to his company’s mission. His product allows
users in different locations to interact with 3D images projected through a
lens.
“Today, we can do this using Wi-Fi technology, and we can
do it using landline technology. But of course you’re then tied to particular
locations. With 5G, now we can begin to extend this. So we can actually begin
to start doing this on building sites. We can start doing it on the factory
floor. So it really opens up a whole new world,” Reeves said.
But before that world can become reality, this one needs
to change. 5G requires the installation of new equipment across the U.S. Every
wireless company is working to build its own 5G network.
Melissa Arnoldi, who leads AT&T’s efforts, said if
it’s not already in your neighborhood, it’s coming.
She said 5G uses high-frequency waves that support faster
speeds but don’t travel as far as current wireless frequencies. So instead of
relying on large cellphone towers spread far apart, they need “small cell”
sites that are much closer together.
“We’re going to use our existing infrastructure today.
Whether it’s light poles, whether it’s street lights. So we’re going to make
sure that we don’t make it obtrusive to our customers and to the citizens,”
Arnoldi said.
Yet some don’t share the enthusiasm.
“The cell towers are called small cell towers, but they
are not so small when they are in your front yard,” said Donna Barron. She is
protesting plans to convert light poles in her Montgomery County, Maryland,
neighborhood into small cell sites.
“This will cause cancer,” Barron said. She was one of
several people who raised health concerns about the radiation emitted by the
equipment at a government hearing last month.
Cell phone equipment does emit radiation but research on
its health effects has been inconsistent. According to the National Cancer
Institute, “A limited number of studies have shown some evidence of statistical
association of cell phone use and brain tumor risks… but most studies have
found no association.”
If Barron loses the fight, she said she’ll consider
moving. Either way, she fears property values could plummet when 5G equipment
pops up.
“It could drop 20 percent,” she said. “For that house,
that house, that house. And then pretty soon you go around the curb and there’s
another cell tower. They’re all through this neighborhood. So it’s going to
devastate the neighborhood.”
Arnoldi insists her workers are focused on safety,
pointing out they live and work near this equipment, too. Although she doesn’t
have any 5G antennae in her neighborhood yet, she said it’s coming soon and
she’s “absolutely” comfortable with that.
Wireless carriers have announced plans to roll out 5G
service to a handful of cities later this year. But to really take advantage,
you’ll need a 5G-enabled device, which probably won’t be available until next
year.
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