National portal for phone tower emissions soon

Wish to know if the phone tower near your residence is emitting radiations within safe levels? Just log on to the national electromagnetic field (EMF) emission portal that will list every mobile phone tower in the country.

The portal which is in its last stage of testing is expected to come online early next year.

"The industry and the department of telecommunications (DoT) are working on a website which will list every cell tower in the country by location and whether it is compliant or not compliant.

"Its in beta testing mode and we will take another two months to complete the testing," Rajan S. Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India(COAI), told reporters here Monday.

"After that it will take another nine months to roll it out," he said.

COAI is a leading mobile communications association.

He said the local operators are responsible for putting the information in the database and the DoT will verify the information.

Initially four states, including Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra have been tested for the platform.

This initiative is part of the central government's aim to debunk "myths" surrounding emissions from cell phone towers, he said.

Mathews cited a report by the WHO published in 2009, which said that "considering the very low exposure levels", there is no convincing evidence that the week signals (from mobile towers) cause adverse health effects.