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 FOEN does have the installation of the systems checked. However, the providers themselves were able to calculate whether unauthorized deviations lead to the legal limits being exceeded. According to the FOEN, this is the same calculation that is carried out when approving a mobile phone antenna.
The office writes: “The cantons and municipalities are responsible for the approval and inspection of mobile phone installations. They have the exact details of the mobile radio installations. As the FOEN is not involved in the approval process, we do not have the complete technical data of the antennas, such as the antenna diagrams. The operators, on the other hand, can carry out the new calculations efficiently using the models they already have. The FOEN then checks the results for plausibility.”
Displeasure over delayed calculations
An email correspondence shows that this dependency makes checks more difficult. During the project, the FOEN was displeased that the companies were taking twice as much time for the calculations as agreed. At the beginning of 2023, the FOEN agreed with Swisscom, Salt and Sunrise that the companies would provide new calculations for the antennas within one month, in which errors in the construction parameters were identified.
When the calculations were not received after two months, the FOEN accused the providers of delaying the inspection work. In response, an Asut representative asserted that this had not been the intention. However, open questions had been identified during the association's internal discussion of the inspections and their results. “The clarifications you requested were of course carried out by the operators and did not reveal any breaches of the installation limits.”
Deviations in need of explanation
However, the calculations were quite tricky. At a meeting, a representative of the Fribourg inspection authority pointed out, according to the FOEN minutes, that the deviations found elsewhere could well lead to the limit values being exceeded.
A representative of the city of St. Gallen mentioned that deviations from the mathematically approved radiation were found during acceptance measurements, for which no concrete explanation had yet been found. In 2021, K-Tipp already reported that many new antennas exceeded the limit values according to acceptance measurements by the cantons.
And finally, Infosperber research revealed that the canton of Bern repeatedly found that the limit values were exceeded this year in its own control measurements - and not merely in radiation calculations.
However, according to the FOEN, control measurements of radiation can only be considered if the calculations have shown that the installation in question exceeds 80 percent of the installation limit.
FOEN keeps a restrained record
The documents also show how cautiously the FOEN keeps records. In a fact sheet on the project, the Office mentions “various discussions with measuring companies, network operators and cantonal and municipal NIS specialist offices”.
The discussions with cantons and cities would be particularly meaningful, as they are primarily responsible for the ongoing inspections and processing of planning applications and must represent the interests of residents vis-à-vis the providers.
A few months ago, for example, the town of Wil (St. Gallen) was proven right in the Federal Supreme Court because it insisted on a planning application from Swisscom (Infosperber reported). As the building police authorities, the municipalities would actually be responsible for inspections. However, they lack the knowledge and resources to do so, as a representative of the canton of Graubünden stated.
However, according to information from the BGÖ, only two of the discussions are documented. There is only a two-page “short protocol” of the most important meeting with all parties involved, for which three hours were scheduled. There are no notes of a separate meeting with Sunrise.
The online magazine Republik recently wrote in an article on the twentieth anniversary of the Public Access Act that there are now “suspicions that the administration no longer writes certain things down at all. And therefore has no documents that could be released.”
Inspections work - when they take place
Nevertheless, the complex checks - which cost over CHF 2,000 per antenna according to the measuring companies' quotes - had an effect and prompted the operating companies to rectify the defects in the systems.
In principle, the antennas, which are remotely controlled by software, are supposed to monitor themselves via a quality assurance system. In a leading ruling published last month, the Federal Supreme Court continued to consider the quality assurance systems to be sufficient in principle, partly because the systems had been validated by the Federal Office of Communications. However, it pointed out “that the control by the QA systems can be falsified if the information provided by the mobile operators is incorrect”.
A case from the canton of Schwyz was the trigger for the FOEN pilot project. Back in 2015, a random check showed that eight of the 14 antennas in the canton at the time were in breach of the building permit. It was also found that antenna parameters had been entered incorrectly in the QS system. This made it impossible for the system to even detect illegal operation.
In 2019, the Federal Supreme Court therefore demanded not only an on-site inspection of construction parameters but also an inspection of the quality assurance systems, which are intended to ensure that antennas are operated in accordance with the permit. However, this work has not yet been completed.
The FOEN states: “Random checks are carried out in the operators' QA system for more than 100 mobile radio installations. Some of these spot checks are carried out at the network centers of the mobile phone operators and some are carried out remotely. The operators are only informed of the base stations to be checked during the inspection. According to current planning, the work is expected to be completed in the course of 2025.”
In its most recent decision, the Federal Supreme Court also commented on the FOEN pilot project: “These initial results do not fundamentally call into question the current case law of the Federal Supreme Court. The definitive results of the FOEN's review must be awaited.”
Original article in German:
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 FOEN does have the installation of the systems checked. However, the providers themselves were able to calculate whether unauthorized deviations lead to the legal limits being exceeded. According to the FOEN, this is the same calculation that is carried out when approving a mobile phone antenna.
The office writes: “The cantons and municipalities are responsible for the approval and inspection of mobile phone installations. They have the exact details of the mobile radio installations. As the FOEN is not involved in the approval process, we do not have the complete technical data of the antennas, such as the antenna diagrams. The operators, on the other hand, can carry out the new calculations efficiently using the models they already have. The FOEN then checks the results for plausibility.”
Displeasure over delayed calculations
An email correspondence shows that this dependency makes checks more difficult. During the project, the FOEN was displeased that the companies were taking twice as much time for the calculations as agreed. At the beginning of 2023, the FOEN agreed with Swisscom, Salt and Sunrise that the companies would provide new calculations for the antennas within one month, in which errors in the construction parameters were identified.
When the calculations were not received after two months, the FOEN accused the providers of delaying the inspection work. In response, an Asut representative asserted that this had not been the intention. However, open questions had been identified during the association's internal discussion of the inspections and their results. “The clarifications you requested were of course carried out by the operators and did not reveal any breaches of the installation limits.”
Deviations in need of explanation
However, the calculations were quite tricky. At a meeting, a representative of the Fribourg inspection authority pointed out, according to the FOEN minutes, that the deviations found elsewhere could well lead to the limit values being exceeded.
A representative of the city of St. Gallen mentioned that deviations from the mathematically approved radiation were found during acceptance measurements, for which no concrete explanation had yet been found. In 2021, K-Tipp already reported that many new antennas exceeded the limit values according to acceptance measurements by the cantons.
And finally, Infosperber research revealed that the canton of Bern repeatedly found that the limit values were exceeded this year in its own control measurements - and not merely in radiation calculations.
However, according to the FOEN, control measurements of radiation can only be considered if the calculations have shown that the installation in question exceeds 80 percent of the installation limit.
FOEN keeps a restrained record
The documents also show how cautiously the FOEN keeps records. In a fact sheet on the project, the Office mentions “various discussions with measuring companies, network operators and cantonal and municipal NIS specialist offices”.
The discussions with cantons and cities would be particularly meaningful, as they are primarily responsible for the ongoing inspections and processing of planning applications and must represent the interests of residents vis-à-vis the providers.
A few months ago, for example, the town of Wil (St. Gallen) was proven right in the Federal Supreme Court because it insisted on a planning application from Swisscom (Infosperber reported). As the building police authorities, the municipalities would actually be responsible for inspections. However, they lack the knowledge and resources to do so, as a representative of the canton of Graubünden stated.
However, according to information from the BGÖ, only two of the discussions are documented. There is only a two-page “short protocol” of the most important meeting with all parties involved, for which three hours were scheduled. There are no notes of a separate meeting with Sunrise.
The online magazine Republik recently wrote in an article on the twentieth anniversary of the Public Access Act that there are now “suspicions that the administration no longer writes certain things down at all. And therefore has no documents that could be released.”
Inspections work - when they take place
Nevertheless, the complex checks - which cost over CHF 2,000 per antenna according to the measuring companies' quotes - had an effect and prompted the operating companies to rectify the defects in the systems.
In principle, the antennas, which are remotely controlled by software, are supposed to monitor themselves via a quality assurance system. In a leading ruling published last month, the Federal Supreme Court continued to consider the quality assurance systems to be sufficient in principle, partly because the systems had been validated by the Federal Office of Communications. However, it pointed out “that the control by the QA systems can be falsified if the information provided by the mobile operators is incorrect”.
A case from the canton of Schwyz was the trigger for the FOEN pilot project. Back in 2015, a random check showed that eight of the 14 antennas in the canton at the time were in breach of the building permit. It was also found that antenna parameters had been entered incorrectly in the QS system. This made it impossible for the system to even detect illegal operation.
In 2019, the Federal Supreme Court therefore demanded not only an on-site inspection of construction parameters but also an inspection of the quality assurance systems, which are intended to ensure that antennas are operated in accordance with the permit. However, this work has not yet been completed.
The FOEN states: “Random checks are carried out in the operators' QA system for more than 100 mobile radio installations. Some of these spot checks are carried out at the network centers of the mobile phone operators and some are carried out remotely. The operators are only informed of the base stations to be checked during the inspection. According to current planning, the work is expected to be completed in the course of 2025.”
In its most recent decision, the Federal Supreme Court also commented on the FOEN pilot project: “These initial results do not fundamentally call into question the current case law of the Federal Supreme Court. The definitive results of the FOEN's review must be awaited.”
Original article in German:
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