by Pascal Sigg, infosperber.ch, 23 January 2025 - DeepL translation
Swisscom and Co. are allowed to calculate themselves whether faulty antennas comply with the limit values. This is shown by documents from a pilot project.
The limit values are the key issue in the dispute over the expansion of the Swiss mobile network. However, for a long time there was hardly any monitoring of whether approved antennas even complied with them. The Federal Supreme Court therefore called on the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) to check the antennas on site (Infosperber reported).
(Photo): Two workers check a Swisscom mobile phone antenna © Cablex AG
The result of a pilot project: almost 40 percent of the randomly checked installations deviated from the approved installation. The FOEN communicated the results of the project in a “fact sheet”. According to this, the deviations did not result in any antenna exceeding the limits.
No limit values exceeded - or were they?
Documents that Infosperber received from the FOEN based on the Public Disclosure Act (BGÖ) show: This was the conclusion that the antenna operators wanted the FOEN to communicate. The industry association Asut intervened with Urs Walker, Head of the Noise and Non-Ionizing Radiation Department, even though representatives of the individual providers were already involved in the project. In a corresponding letter from Asut, it states that the FOEN inspections had not revealed any exceedance of the precautionary installation limit values, which is “certainly the most important finding of the clarifications carried out to date”.
But this cannot be verified independently.
The result of a pilot project: almost 40 percent of the randomly checked installations deviated from the approved installation. The FOEN communicated the results of the project in a “fact sheet”. According to this, the deviations did not result in any antenna exceeding the limits.
No limit values exceeded - or were they?
Documents that Infosperber received from the FOEN based on the Public Disclosure Act (BGÖ) show: This was the conclusion that the antenna operators wanted the FOEN to communicate. The industry association Asut intervened with Urs Walker, Head of the Noise and Non-Ionizing Radiation Department, even though representatives of the individual providers were already involved in the project. In a corresponding letter from Asut, it states that the FOEN inspections had not revealed any exceedance of the precautionary installation limit values, which is “certainly the most important finding of the clarifications carried out to date”.
But this cannot be verified independently.
