Phone radiation rule under fire
China Business Weekly, Author: (HOU MINGJUAN)
June 18,2002
China's mobile phone makers and mobile telecoms carriers are working together to oppose a new standard that would impose stricter regulations on the radiation emitted from mobile phones and base stations.
The new standard, drafted by the country's telecoms regulator, is the strictest in the world.
"If the draft rule becomes a national standard, it will severely hurt China's telecoms industry," said Michael Milligan, secretary general of the Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF) whose members include Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens and Sony.
The organization is naturally concerned with both the people's public health and development of the industry, Milligan said.
Furthermore, claims that the radiation emitted from phones is harmful to health are unsupported, handset makers say. According to reports from the World Health Organization (WHO), no evidence has shown that radiation from mobile phones and their base stations harms the body. Research results from the British Independent Expert Group, Canadian Royal Research Commission and Cancer Association of the United States have drawn the same conclusion.
The Ministry of Information Industry, the watchdog of the industry, was not immediately available for comment.
Liu Yan and Gao Zhiqian, two experts with the Ministry of Science and Technology, said in addition to better protecting users' health, the strict rule will benefit the domestic mobile handset industry in the long run.
The new standard will help improve the image of Chinese brands and give them an upper hand in the scramble for global market share, they said.
Changes in standards are changing the competitive landscape of the fast-changing market. Those products which dominate the market but do not conform to new standards may be washed out of the market overnight, the two experts claimed.
Handset makers and telecoms operators have a very different opinion and say the rule will affect their business and the quality of the services they provide.
The draft rule, which is still being discussed by the Chinese Government, stipulates lower power capacity for handsets, which will significantly reduce the quality of voice communications, according to C.K.Chou, science adviser of MMF.
Under the new radiation standard, mobile phone makers will have to readjust their production lines to satisfy the new rule.
As most countries adopt the international level, which allows radiation levels twice as high as those outlined in China's new regulation, the exports of mobile phones produced in China to those countries will probably be dampened in the medium term.
Exports of rising domestic mobile phone makers like TCL, Bird and Haier, which have just started to gain footholds in international markets, will probably be hurt as well.
As the rule also asks for a lower radio exposure from base stations, the mobile telecoms carriers will have to double or triple the number of current base stations to maintain the current network coverage.
"The cost will be huge and hard to imagine," Chou said.
Representatives from the China Mobile Communications Association said the draft rule is unrealistic and "very possibly could be abandoned."
Chen Yujian, director of the association, said the association urges the government to follow the international benchmark.
"If China follows the proposed rule, the mobile telecoms industry will suffer backward development," according to Chen.
Although they say they will comply with the rule if it is approved by the government, domestic mobile phone vendors and telecoms carriers are working under the table to jointly oppose the draft rule, insiders say.
"I do not think the draft rule will become a real standard as the whole industry will be hurt by the strict rule," said an official from Bird, who asked to be unnamed.
The draft rule, which has drawn much criticism, will be decided later this year.
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