We only need one 5G network
Health concerns over cell towers mean mobile operators should learn to share, writes Richard MacManus.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment last week released a discussion document for 5G, the next generation cellular mobile technology.
Among the issues raised is how
5G will be rolled out in New Zealand and what the societal impacts will be. In particular, there are health concerns about the increased number of cell towers – estimated to be double the current number – that will be required for a 5G network.
We saw a glimpse of what 5G hopes to deliver last week, when the first ‘‘live trial’’ was conducted by Spark.
Communications Minister Clare Curran was the first to test it. She got a download speed of 9.3 gigabits per second, which equates to 9300 megabits per second. That’s
46 times the maximum speed I can get on my current ultrafast broadband package at home, which clocks in at a measly 200 megabits per second.
What’s more, 5G could end up being twice as fast as the speed Curran got. The specifications for
5G technology, which are still being worked on internationally, aim to reach a peak data rate of
20Gbps. That would be a 20 times increase from the current 4G generation.
As well as being super fast, 5G will have much lower latency – which means no delays or freezes when streaming high bandwidth media like videos and games.
5G is being marketed as the required infrastructure for nextgeneration technology. The MBIE paper highlights ‘‘self-driving cars, increased use of robotics and industry automation, and massive machine type communications (the internet of things)’’.
But hold your horses; this 5G future won’t arrive in New Zealand until at least 2020. Plus, there are a couple of contentious issues that must be addressed before it’s approved.
The first is whether New Zealand will have a single national 5G network, or whether the main telecommunications companies will each roll out their own networks.
With 4G, three companies built their own networks: Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees. All have indicated they wish to do the same with 5G, an approach MBIE favours. ‘‘There would have to be strong public policy reasons to prevent this occurring,’’ the ministry’s paper notes.
While there is enough spectrum to have three separate 5G networks, there’s one potentially serious drawback: 5G will require many more cell towers than 4G.
The paper states that ‘‘the number of cell towers in urban areas will double.’’ So that means if all three companies roll out their own 5G network, we can expect double the number of cell towers in our cities and towns.
The big worry is that this may negatively impact the health of people who live or work close by these cell towers.
Massey University’s School of Engineering and Advanced Technology began a study of the health impacts of 5G back in 2016. So I reached out to the leader of that project, Syed Faraz Hasan, for an update.
‘‘We are in the process of preparing a draft on our health study, which we intend to send for international peer review,’’ Hasan says. ‘‘While the study estimates power density in the presence of 5G transmitters, it is also important to assess the effects of longer term exposure.’’
In the meantime, Hasan has some suggestions on how 5G should be rolled out here. He thinks there should be just one, national, network.
‘‘Given the size and population of New Zealand, it is probably wise to keep the competition at the retail level, because 5G infrastructure will be laborious and costly to deploy,’’ he says.
Regarding the potential increase in cell towers, Hasan thinks regulation on how many antennae can be placed in an area may need to be revisited.
‘‘Controlling transmit power could be another regulatory issue,’’ he adds, ‘‘because that will not only affect out-of-band emissions, but also the amount of electromagnetic radiation that users will be exposed to.’’
So should we be worried about the health risks of 5G?
While there is no firm data yet in New Zealand, overseas there is rising concern.
Last September, more than 180 scientists and doctors from 35 countries sent a declaration to officials of the European Commission to recommend a moratorium on 5G roll-outs. The group claimed that 5G would ‘‘substantially increase exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF).’’
Back home, the MBIE paper only mentions health risks once. There is a note about ‘‘managing any potential health effects from increased exposure to non-ionizing radiation’’. But a couple of paragraphs on, we’re told that ‘‘New Zealand standards for nonionizing radiation are consistent with international standards.’’
Somehow I don’t find that reassuring.
I’d like to see our government more fully address the health risks of 5G. If they haven’t already, they should seek the advice of Hasan and his team at Massey University.
The common sense approach would surely be to roll out just one 5G network, rather than three of them. The fewer cell towers we have in our urban centres, the better.
❚ Richard MacManus (@ricmac) founded tech blog ReadWrite Web in 2003 and has since become an internationally recognised commentator on what’s next in technology and what it means for society.