New system to track phone mast emissions

An open access online data service which will give radio emission levels for sites near mobile phone masts, is due to be launched in late March.

The service, which is to be offered by the mobile networks business Vilicom, in association with Dublin City University's (DCU) School of Electronic Engineering, is aimed at providing accurate and credible data for persons interested in the emission levels.

Called Openaccess, interested parties will be able to commission the placing of monitors on particular sites. The resulting information will be placed on an internet site, openaccess.ie where the levels recorded can be gauged against the World Health Organisation guidelines for different frequencies.

Vilicom director Joe Moore said the idea is to provide credible information around which the debate on emission levels can take place.

DCU's electronic engineering school will audit the operation and conduct occasional spot checks, in order to re-enforce the authoritiveness of the data. "It will act as a watchdog."

Vilicom has been working with the school since last summer on the project. One of the company's founders, chief executive Colin Cunningham, is a graduate of DCU, as are a significant number of Vilicom's staff.

The monitors are white tubes of between 61cm and 92cm in height and are powered by a solar panel. A monitor will be placed on each site following an inspection to discover where the highest emission readings are located.

For a minute each day, a GSM modem on the monitor will relay the data collected for the previous 24 hours to a computer in DCU, which will then make the data available through the website.

The monitors are being purchased from a company in Switzerland and the software being used was developed by Vilicom. The website is very easy to read and understand.

"There seems to be a lot of debate about the dangers of masts but no accurate data," said Mr Moore. "We decided we could get the data and present it in a simple, non-technical way."

The data collected by the monitors will go straight onto the internet without any human intervention.

Vilicom has started discussions with parties it hopes will be interested in the service. It has made contact with groups such as systems operators, the Office of Public Works, telecoms regulator ComReg, and landlords who have masts on their property.

Protest groups, if they want, can also commission the placing of a monitor at a particular site. "We will take commissions from everyone," said Mr Moore.

However, it is Vilicom that decides where on a site a monitor will be positioned. Site owners, of course, will have to grant permission.

Because of the way emissions act, a particular site can experience different levels of emission at different locations. Vilicom chooses the location of the highest readings. This aspect of its work is also audited by DCU.

Mr Moore emphasised that the monitors collect data on emissions at a particular site, rather than from a particular mast.

The readings are for the accumulated signals at the location of the monitor. Readings for particular frequencies will be recorded, as well as for the accumulated bands.

It is intended that, for as long as a site is being monitored, the historical data from that site will be freely available on the website. Once the monitor is decommissioned, the archival data will then only be available to the party that commissioned the monitor.

Price will depend on the level of uptake for the service, Mr Moore said. However, it is not expected that individuals will be making commissions.

Vilicom sees its function as providing accurate data rather than taking part in the debate on the safety or otherwise of emissions. It will simply provide the data and show how it compares with the WHO guidelines.

Jim Dowling, of the DCU School of Electronic Engineering, said the safety guidelines set by the World Health Organisation for emissions are "at a magnitude that is many levels below what people believe to be harmful."

On the day The Irish Timesviewed the openaccess website, the levels at DCU were hundreds of times below the WHO standards for the frequencies viewed.