Four Telcos to face sanctions over radiation monitoring

Four out of the six Telcos operating in the country could face sanctions from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not complying with the laid down rules concerning the deployment of communication masts.

The four, MTN, TIGO, GLO and Expresso are yet to fully meet all the guidelines as stated in government’s guidelines regarding the deployment of masts.

However, Airtel and Vodafone are said to have adhered to the various sections under the guidelines as stipulated by government.

A Research Scientist with the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Amoako who spoke to Citi Business News on the sidelines of a stakeholder forum on the Guidelines for the installation of communication towers and masts, said his outfit expects all the remaining four Telcos to fully comply with Proper Radiation Monitoring or face Sanctions.

“When it comes to radiation monitoring, so far two of the companies, Airtel and Vodafone Ghana have consistently come for monitoring, for the rest, some of them have offloaded their towers to new companies and therefore are in transition and we are hoping that all of them will comply in the near future.”

Some section of the Government of Ghana Guidelines for the deployment of communication towers and masts states that “A person who intends to construct a tower must demonstrate that all reasonable steps have been taken to investigate tower sharing before applying to the permitting agencies to construct a new tower within a specified radius of 400m of the proposed site.”

Dr Amoah further mentioned that radio stations, phone manufacturing stations and other institutions that emit radiations are also obliged under the law to comply with the guidelines.

“FM Stations, mobile phone manufacturing companies and all companies that emit radiation are supposed to comply with the guidelines but the emphasis has been with the Telcos because they are more visible; and the perception is that they are rich, however all TV and radio stations are obliged to fully comply as they emit radiations as well.”

Meanwhile, the Telecom Implementation Manager of TIGO, Sam Yeboah has told Citi Business News; his outfit will closely monitor the activities of Helios Towers who manage their communication towers, in order to increase compliance with government’s directive.