WIRELESS COMMUNICATION LABORATORY CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE

INDIAN INSTITUTE TECHNOLOGY, MADRAS IN WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY OF ENGINEERING, MADURAI

Report on Electromagnetic Radiation Measurement at New

Delhi For Compliance With International Commission on
Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) Standards

Executive Summary

The mobile service providers have been licensed by the Government of India under Section 4 of
the Indian Telegraph Act to build, operate and maintain and offer wireless services in their
respective license areas.

To provide the cellular mobile services, all operators are required to design and build a cellular
network comprising of a chain of contiguous cells, each served by a Base Station (cellular
towers). It is through these base stations that the cellular signal is transmitted from cell-to-
cell till the mobile subscriber is located and the call is terminated. Thus, to provide seamless,
uninterrupted service and to cover the entire geographical area of any city/town, these operators
are technically required to install telecommunication towers in residential and non-residential /
commercial areas.

The Ministry of Communications & IT, adopted ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-
Ionizing Radiation Protection) guidelines for the telecom sector in India, bringing it at par with the
international standards on public health & safety. Accordingly, Department of
Telecommunications, (DoT) further vide its letter No. 842-998/2008-AS-IV/13 dated 04.11.2008
amended the UASL license, and directed each service provider to comply as per procedures
prescribed by Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), for confirming to limits/levels for
Base Station Antennae for general public exposure as prescribed by ICNIRP. The basic
restrictions/ proper limits for power density specified in ICNIRP guidelines for frequencies
between 400 to 2000 MHz are as follows.

Type of Exposure 900MHz(inW/m2) 1800MHz (in W/m2)

Occupational 22.5 45

General Public 4.5 9

The Industry associations recently commissioned an independent study to carry out
measurement of emissions from various locations in Pune. The study was carried out by,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai (IITM), (2) Thiagarajar College of
Engineering, Madurai (TCE) and (3) Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, Chennai
(CEWIT).

The measurements of the cumulative emissions were meticulously carried out at all the locations
in Pune area by the team of Independent experts using carefully calibrated equipment. While
carrying out the measurements, the guide lines as per ICNRIP were followed. The
measurements were done for 800 to 2000MHZ band of frequency (which includes both GSM and
CDMA technologies). It was observed that in all locations, multiple frequencies from various base
stations were present. To deal with multiple frequencies environment, theoretical calculation
method as per the guide lines of ICNRIP to assess whether the overall radiation is within the
ICNRIP limits were used.

The measurement results showed that all the places in Pune where the measurements
were made on 30th October 2010 were much below the compliance limit of ICNRIP
standards.

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