The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has launched a project to study the level of electromagnetic radiation from telecommunication stations in Oman. In association with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, TRA has contracted a global company for the purpose.
The project is part of TRA’s efforts to regulate and develop the telecommunication sector, the regulator said in a statement.
“The project is aimed at measuring/ determining the extent to which operators are complying with the standards approved by TRA in accordance with the guidance of International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP),” it said.
ICNIRP is an international commission specialised in non-ionising radiation protection whose activities include determining exposure limits for electromagnetic fields used by devices such as cellular phones. The measurements include electric field, magnetic field and magnetic flow of each point. The results will be compared with the permitted ranges as per ICNIRP standards. Radiations from mobile towers have been a concern for some time and this seems to have grown in recent times with the growing network of mobile service providers.
According to TRA, 10 per cent of the total telecommunication stations across the Sultanate will be measured for electromagnetic radiation.
The measurement involves two methods: The first involves selecting 16 measurement points around the station, being the most exposed to radiation, including 2G, 3G and 4G frequencies.
The second method will take the same number of measurement points and the radiation emitted from the operators’ frequencies is determined and measured only for that station.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs has issued Ministerial Decision No 25/2015 on environmental regulations and guidelines for establishing, installing or operating base stations for mobile communications towers and antennas in the Sultanate.
Samuel Kutty
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