While the Guanghua Digital Plaza in Taipei is the go-to place for gadgets and electronics from the newest high-end computers down to the spare connector for your TV, having 17 base stations on the roof of the building is apparently beyond the tolerance of some of the businesses within.
Since being relocated to the six-floor building six years ago, owners of the stalls inside the plaza have complained of possibility of overexposure to electromagnetic waves, with so many base stations on top of the building.
Some have been angered that the Taipei City Government’s Market Administration Office recently approved Chunghwa Telecom’s application to erect two more base stations, plaza development association secretary-general Chuang Chih-tsung (莊治宗) said.
Chuang said vendors have to be at their stalls for more than 11 hours a day and some think that the exposure to excessive amounts of electromagnetic waves could harm their health. He added that the most recently installed base stations on the side of the building were also in danger of harming pedestrians as well as being an eyesore.
Chuang said that the signal strength for wireless network connections inside the plaza was nothing to be surprised about, adding that most wireless network users use the Taipei Free public Wi-Fi system.
Inspecting the plaza on Friday to gain an understanding of the situation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said that despite the office’s approval, it has not sent an application to the Taipei City Construction Management Office for the construction of the latest base stations.
Hsu said she would recommend that the city council look into the matter and remove all unnecessary base stations before the middle of December, adding that the city council would also consider giving some reparation subsidies to the businesses in the building.
In response, Market Administration Office asset management division director Yeh Ya-ling (葉雅玲) said the base stations included networks for the 2G, 3G and 4G networks.
However, Yeh said that as the newly established Taipei Akihabara in the vicinity would also have base stations, her agency would consider the possibility of taking out all the base stations at the plaza.
All stations serving 2G networks would be removed by the end of the year, Yeh said.
Yeh said excess base stations would be removed and all base stations on the building’s side would be moved inside, adding that it would also ask the National Communications Commission to test whether the electromagnetic waves emitted are harmful to the human body.
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