Not adopting the European limits on 5G costs us 4 billion euros

Italy is the only major EU country that has not adopted the standards recommended by ICNIRP, the International Commission for the Protection from Non-Ionizing Radiation. It’s not a record to brag about, on the contrary, according to Asstel, continuing with the adoption of more stringent limits on electromagnetic emissions could entail an additional cost of around 4 billion euros for the entire national system. A discussion that comes from afar and which historically has also involved other European countries which, however, are changing their minds in the meantime. Even the most refractory ones are doing it, such as Poland, which has complied with international limits since 2020, and even the Brussels region which has started a process of amending the legislation.

The decree that (almost) everyone wants

If the Parliament has not yet legislated, the national telcos have not been at a standstill. Time ago push to adapt to European parameters and the fact that a draft decree law is circulating which provides for an increase in the values ​​of the limits in line with European development policies is good news. However, there are those who disagree. Assoprovider, the association created to defend the smaller ISPs, doesn’t agree and has released a note to highlight how increasing the limits could put their members and the territories in which they operate at risk. There is also talk of health risks, but in reality the problem is purely economic: the need to remain in the market is fundamental for every company and for this reason Giambattista Frontera, president of Assoprovider, argues that increasing the limits would favor only the large companies in the sector, effectively excluding the smaller operators.

The limit of current limits

Competition is sacrosanct, but the situation remains complex and needs to be resolved. If Assoprovider writes that with higher emissions there would be no real advantage in reducing the digital divide, since the Italian territory is more complex from an orographic point of view compared to other areas of Europe, making it more difficult to implement effective networks throughout the country, on the other hand, 5G coverage cannot be accepted that does not also include the most remote areas. Not only for the “5G Plan” in progress, but also for a question of territorial equity that associations such as Uncem have long been posing as a political issue. Indeed, in Italy the limits on electromagnetic emissions from mobile telephony are set at 6 V/m while, in the draft under discussion, an increase up to a value of 24 V/m is envisaged. You don’t need to know the subject thoroughly to understand how, for the proponents, it is a regulatory change so important as to produce all-round positive effects, starting with the brake on the proliferation of plants. It’s not a paradox: with higher limits, the environmental impact resulting from the greater consumption of energy and land would decrease and, at the same time, it would favor the competitiveness of telcos no longer required to install new antennas. But the problems (read the entry fake news) that have been read for years on the net what happened to them?

5G is no longer scary

According to the analysis presented yesterday by Bytek and I-Com, fears related to fifth generation frequencies, antennas and electromagnetic pollution are significantly diminishing everywhere. In our country these fears are even less than those of other realities such as France, Spain and the USA. In short, citizens’ fears about 5G are now marginal. Despite the widespread idea that the population is afraid of electromagnetic pollution and has a certain aversion to installing antennas, web searches related to 5G and related to a feeling of fear show a sharply decreasing trend: in Italy fell from 13 percent of the total in 2020 to 2.8 percent in 2022, a year in which only 144.5 searches of this type were recorded for every 100,000 inhabitants. Not a bad victory, the No5Gs are disappearing waiting for the next conspiracy.