National Communications Commission (NCC) spokesperson Lee Ta-sung (李大嵩) said yesterday that the commission would continue communicating with lawmakers serving on the Transportation Committee about an amendment to the Telecommunication Act (電信法) that would limit buildings to housing three base stations for mobile phones.
The amendment to Article 32 of the act passed its first reading last month.
Changes also stipulate that state-owned land or property must be opened for the installation of base stations unless administrative authorities in charge of the properties can present proof that installation is inviable.
The amendment further stipulates that no base stations can be installed in public or private senior high schools, junior high schools and primary schools.
The committee adopted most of the version proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中).
The amendment was proposed in light of the numerous protests launched against base installations. Some environmentalists and community residents are worried that electromagnetic waves emitted from base stations could cause cancer or harm their health.
A representative from the Department of Health (DOH) attended the Transportation Committee meeting last month. He cited a report from the WHO in 2006 that said there was no reliable evidence showing that radio waves emitted from base stations harm humans.
Lee said the NCC would continue to communicate with legislators on the details and encourage telecom operators to share use of base stations.
“[Sharing base stations] must be done in a way that sustains the nation’s telecommunication industry,” Lee said.
Lee’s comments were made in a press conference introducing a Web site designed by the Taiwan Telecommunication Industry Development Association to educate the public about electromagnetic waves.
The association was formed by major telecom operators, including Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), Far EasTone Telecommunication (遠傳電信), Asia Pacific Telecom (亞太電信) and Vibo Telecom (威寶電信). The management of the companies takes turns chairing the association.
Association spokesperson Liu Li-ciou (劉莉秋) said it would be technically impossible to only have three base stations on each building.
“You have the 2G system, the 3G system, the low-power PHS system and WiMAX, and each technology is different from the other. Sharing base stations isn’t like joining a three-legged race. You can’t just tear one antenna from each system and tie them together,” she said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS