Environmental activists urge NCC not to issue WiMax licenses

A group of environmentalists held a sit-in outside the National Communications Commission yesterday to protest against its upcoming issue of WiMAX operating licenses, urging the NCC not to issue licenses before the safety of WiMAX has been fully established.
WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology that is reportedly five times faster than the current wireless technology. WiMAX base stations can, at the moment, attain effective coverage of 1.5 kilometers outdoors and 30-400 meters indoors.

Chen Jiau-hua, an associate professor at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science and a member of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, led the hunger strike sit-in yesterday. Chen said the NCC is undermining people's health by issuing WiMAX licenses.

"People in other countries now have safety concerns over the installation of WiMAX base stations; no other country has yet issued licenses to WiMAX operators," Chen said. "How can the government issue licenses to operators without giving assurance that WiMAX base stations will pose no danger to people's health?"

"I staged the sit-in protest to call on the government to stop treating the people of this country like guinea pigs," she said.

Chen said that reports published over the past year or two showed that many people who live near wireless base stations were found to have cancer or strokes five to 10 years after the stations were built. The power emitted by WiMAX base stations is far greater than that of second-generation or third-generation base stations, Chen said, adding that there are already many base stations in Taiwan.

Wearing a hat decorated with red ribbons, Chen said that she was outraged when she learned the NCC was actually about to issue WiMAX operating licenses.

"Even China does not dare to build WiMAX base stations now. The ruling party has provided no information on how to protect oneself in the highly dangerous base-station environment," she added.

In response, the NCC stressed that the power output of WiMAX base stations is similar to that of 2G or 3G technology.

"After the NCC issues licenses to WiMAX operators, we will use strict standards to ask operators to follow the rules when setting up base stations," the NCC said.

As for whether the WiMAX base stations will pose a health threat, the NCC said that it is not equipped to professionally assess the potential danger to humans, but will respect the opinion of the Department of Health or the Environmental Protection Administration, and measure the base stations' power if necessary.

EPA Deputy Director Chang Tzi-ching said that he was giving high priority to the environmental group's appeal, and that the EPA will ask the NCC to propose a complete environmental assessment report to address the concerns of the general public.

The NCC is slated to hold a bid for potential WiMAX operators today. Eight companies will bid for six operating licenses.

【2007/7/26 Taiwan News】