Moving on Cell

Government’s move to regulate the erection of cell towers by the mobile providers, in the face of growing protests with respect to possible adverse effects on safety, health and real estate values, should have been initiated even before the industry was opened up.It had ample warning in the Caribbean, for example, that the introduction of deregulation would have triggered a sudden and massive demand for cell phones, and with it the need for the competing companies to erect several of these cell towers around the country. Government will now belatedly introduce its Mobile Cell Towers Policy, which when implemented, will call for the dismantling of towers which do not conform to proposed standards.

Planning and Development Minister, Camille Robinson-Regis, hinted at last week’s post Cabinet news conference that mobile telephone providers may have put up towers without prior planning permission. Existing regulations should have made it mandatory for permission to be sought before any towers went up. In the absence of specific regulations to deal with a troubling situation, a new policy will have to be formulated, as is now being done. A cursory examination will show the need to tread carefully.

Health issues, it has been determined, was the primary reason for the protests across the country and these regulations will go a long way to allay such fears. While there was no definite decision on the impact of emissions, the World Health Organization though has advised caution. “It has not come down on one side or the other,” Minister Robinson-Regis pointed out. Still, government needs to get its act together.

Planned exclusion zones, for instance, would allow for minimum areas around cell towers so that in the event of a tower collapsing or being dismantled there would be no danger to property or life.In turn, the proposal to have a buffer zone for each tower would prevent access to children who may be otherwise tempted to climb the cell tower. The Minister’s explanation and its rationale for regulating cell towers is so compelling that the wonder is that the Policy was not formulated long before the first cellular license was granted.