Nothing to fear from Telecoms Masts

International experts weigh in on mobile towers emissions in key forum under the patronage of His Excellency Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications

Mobilk - Under the Patronage of His Excellency Engineer Kamal Bin Ahmed, Bahrain Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (“TRA”) held a key telecommunications forum on 15 November 2016 at the Gulf Hotel Convention Center in Manama on “the present and future of telecoms towers in the kingdom of Bahrain”. 

In his opening speech, His Excellency Engineer Kamal Bin Ahmed stressed on the importance of telecommunications infrastructure, which represents the backbone of digital society and economy that eventually lead to prosperity and economic growth in the Kingdom. “It is not possible to keep pace with rapid and massive changes in all areas of economic sectors without the development of state of art telecommunications infrastructure at the national level that deliver ultra-fast broadband services not only on fixed network but also on wireless network which requires deployment of mobile towers.” Says His Excellency Engineer Kamal, “It is also equally important to comply with all technical, engineering, safety, and health standards and best practices when deploying radio communications towers. This shall not disrupt the ability of mobile operators to provide quality services and meet the ever increasing demand on mobile services.” He added

TRA Chairman Dr. Mohamed Al Amer said “The forum aimed at raising awareness of the realities of telecoms towers safety and addresses the misconceptions and public concerns surrounding them. International experts from GSMA the global association of mobile of mobile network operators shared their research on the subject, explaining how the mobile technology works, the related international standards and how safe it is to the public.” 

During the event, TRA has presented its future vision on this subject by shading light on how through the new mast and towers regulation it will handle the approval and deployment of telecoms masts in the Kingdom.

GSMA experts Dr. Jack Rowley shared in-depth presentation as well as human exposure limits to radio signals. He expressed that “The policy of Bahrain follows global best practice to protect the public. The health protection limits are those recommended by the World Health Organization, the levels measured in public areas are very low relative to the limits and the consistent conclusion of public health agencies around the world is that there are no established health risks of living near a mobile network antenna.”