Laws to govern placement of cell towers in the making

A new set of regulations will be introduced shortly to govern the placement of cell towers in Antigua & Barbuda, especially within residential areas.
Head of the Development Control Authority (DCA) Frederick Southwell said the draft, which is being put together by the Ministry of Information and Technology, will also include a component which compels telephone providers to share a tower instead of constructing new ones in the same area.
“They are competitors; Digicel may not want to share its tower with Flow, but if they are compelled by law to do so, then they would have to or they will be denied access to set up their own,” Southwell said.
The chief town and country planner said the move is to reduce the proliferation of cell towers on the island, which some residents have labelled as health hazards.
He said the DCA had allowed the erection of cell towers in residential areas based on data received from Digicel and which had been compiled by an international company.
This was backed up by further information provided by FLOW.
Southwell said that the information had indicated that cell towers within these areas were well within the safety limits for residents.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)