In Brazil, the city of Rio de Janeiro has new rules for installing radio base stations sites. The city is establishing a series of stricter rules for telecoms towers, both in public and private.
Among the main features, carriers will have to share their towers and maintain a minimum distance of 500 meters between the antennas on the ground. In addition, it has banned the installation of antennas on canopies and facades, as well as within 50 meters of schools hospitals and clinics.
In Rio, carriers will have six months to adapt to the new rules. After that time, all old permits will be revoked. The decree applies to both radio base stations and minibase stations that meet the personal mobile service and specialized mobile service.
TIM said that it is reviewing the provisions of Decree No. 34,622 to verify the impact of new rules established by the municipal administration. América Móvil’s Claro said it is studying the application of new standards, since the decree was published recently. Oi said it had no comment, and Vivo did not answer RCR Wireless News’ questions about its positioning.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications (Anatel) is conducting a public consultation about the proposal to amend the regulation on sharing infrastructure with providers of telecommunications services. The proposal aims to regulate the provisions of article 10 of Law No. 11.934/2009, which provides for limits on human exposure to electric fields , magnetic and electromagnetic fields.
Among others amendments, the project establishes the conditions under which it is disallowed to share towers, such as when the limit of human exposure to electric fields, magnetic and electromagnetic spectrum may become outdated due to sharing of the tower by radio stations; when incurring interference between providers’ regularly installed systems; if the tower exceeds the ability to support new equipment, compromising its security and stability; if line of sight is blocked between radio stations belonging to providers, compromising the quality of the service.
Anatel proposes that to be granted a waiver, infrastructure holders prove the technical reasons through a qualified study, accompanied by technical responsibility, submitted to the agency.
The consultation also proposes a 24-month period for telecom service providers to report on the conditions under which they can share with existing broadcasting stations. About Anatel’s news rules, RCR Wireless News has requested interviews with carriers, but they said they will manifest themselves only after analysing new rules.
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