The National Communications Commission will comfortably meet its target of dismantling 1,500 mobile phone base stations this year, commission chairman Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽) said yesterday.
While briefing the Legislative Yuan, Su said the commission was happy with the progress made by private operators in dismantling the controversy-ridden base stations.
Su said that as at the end of last month, 1,472 base stations had been dismantled and removed -- 98.13 percent of the target. He said a further 28 base stations would easily be removed in the remaining two months of the year.
Su was responding to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
A survey performed by the commission a year ago found that there were 26,000 base stations for 2G mobile phones, 6,500 base stations for 3G mobile phones and 16,000 base stations for personal handy-phone systems, for a total of about 48,000 base stations dotted around the country.
Lawmakers have urged the commission to cut the number of base stations by at least half, as network coverage is more than five times the amount that Taiwan actually needs.
Residential neighborhoods and schools must not be exposed to the risk of radiation emitted by base stations that could cause cancer, miscarriages and diseases of the nervous system, and could even drive people to suicide, the legislators said.
The lawmakers said base stations must be moved out of high population areas, as studies show that radiation at such facilities in Taipei and Tainan exceeds safe levels.
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