5G In-depth Analysis for ITRE Committee

Policy Department A at the request of the ITRE Committee *1 prepared in 2019 an in-depth analysis named 5G Deployment State of Play in Europe, USA and Asia *2 which compared the deployment of 5G in the EU with other leading economies. This study was the basis for later briefing Effects of 5G wireless communication on human health *3 which was released in 2020.

The operators and suppliers of mobile industry promise that 5G will bring advance in speed and reliability to mobile devices, advanced manufacturing, better healthcare systems, smart cities, connected vehicles. We would like to highlight important facts contained in these and related documents:

The main objective of the action plan is to roll out these technologies across the EU as rapidly as possible. The 5G Action Plan for Europe does not mention health aspects at all and exposure limits of RF EMF in the Member States are identified as barriers - limits are sometimes much lower (i.e. safer) than required by the relevant European directive on health protection, therefore they impose greater restrictions on aggregation (i.e. the action of multiple signals simultaneously). These barriers are intended to be removed by harmonising the rules, which implies increasing the exposure limits across the Member states if countries have stricter limits (i.e. safer) than European standards (point 3.3., section Reducing the cost of installing access points). *4, page 6

For urban coverage with 5G small cells, EU advices member states to enable a unified EU approach to antenna densification.

In the chapter Factors for 5G Success is mentioned: “After technology capability, key factor of success will be the ease with which a large number of small cells can be deployed in densifying the network. China and the Asian Tigers have an advantage here because their political structures and culture mean that they can mandate deployment without the need for public assent.” *2, page 24

We can see similar behaviour to Asian tigers as the EU plans to rapidly deploy hundreds of small cells per square kilometre as “in line with EECC Article 57, EU is crafting a regime for SAWAP deployment, aiming for permit-free installation from 2020.” *2, page 24

In document Light deployment regime for Small-Area Wireless Access Points (SAWAPs) it was mentioned that pursuant to Article 57 of the EECC *7 the EU Commission services are preparing a first Commission Implementing Act on small-area wireless access points (SAWAPs or ‘small cells’), "that will be exempted from any individual town planning permit or other prior individual permits, except for environmental or historical reasons or public safety” *5. Its adoption was targeted for Q2/2020, in compliance with the deadline of 30 June 2020 in the EECC *7

Regulation (EU) 2020/1070 introduced in point (8) “base stations divided into five installation classes corresponding to different limits of their equivalent isotropical radiated power (EIRP) of a few milliwatt (Class E0), 2 Watt (Class E2), 10 Watt (Class E10), 100 Watt (Class E100) and above 100 Watt (Class E+)” *6 and installation safety distances which “requires that the lowest radiating part of the antenna of a Class E10 has a height of at least 2,2 metres above the general public walkway to ensure a distance of at least 20 cm between the main antenna lobe and the human body of a 2 m tall person” and in point (9) “For aestetic reasons, the indoor installation of small-area wireless access points of Class E10, which are likely to utilise the maximum volume limit of 20 litres, should be limited to large indoor places with a ceiling height of at least 4 metres, such as museums, stadiums, convention centres, airports, metro-transport stations, railway stations, or shopping centres.”

We are deeply concerned about the findings contained in the documents: