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SonntagsBlick: A year ago Sunrise and Swisscom launched the 5G offensive with drums and trumpets. The expansion is now completely blocked. Have you overestimated yourself?
André Krause: The auction for the 5G frequencies took place in February 2019. Of course, we wanted to implement these frequencies as quickly as possible. The preparation of politicians for the subsequent necessary decisions was slower than expected. That was a negative surprise.
How many of your customers already use 5G?
It’s still less than one percent of the data that runs on 5G.
At the same time, the voices warning about the dangers of 5G are getting louder. Do you take people’s concerns seriously?
Insurance. We underestimate the vehemence of the discussion. But the latest studies by international expert committees show that the limit values recommended by the WHO today do not cause any adverse health effects. And the limit values for mobile phone antennas in Switzerland are ten times lower than those of the WHO.
So are radiation fears unfounded?
Critics’ arguments are exaggerated. They are rarely based on facts and often on studies that are at least questionable. We counter this with information. But we wish the federal government had given us more information from the beginning. It was too passive. So he triggered the situation instead of calming it down.
Next week you will meet the director of Uvek, Simonetta Sommaruga. What will you tell the Federal Councilor?
It is important that not only the industry itself tries to explain the safety of 5G. It is also the task of politics to support us here. We need legal certainty quickly and a meaningful debate on adapting the limit values.
This discussion is totally blocked …
Obviously, I am frustrated with the current situation. It is scandalous. The state sold the frequencies 18 months ago, but has not yet created the framework for their use. With the result that the cantons and municipalities complain of not having clarity when it comes to issuing construction permits. I hope that next week’s conversation will provide us with a clear and quick timetable.
Is it possible to expand 5G without increasing the limit values?
In this case, the group of experts commissioned by Uvek estimates that 26,500 new antennas will be needed. That’s absurd. Today we are already having a hard time finding antenna locations. If we have to factor in the costs of tens of thousands of other locations in the final product, it becomes so expensive that no one wants it anymore.
However, if the limit values are increased, you will face another problem: a new building permit will be required for each existing system in Switzerland. That means: there will probably be objections on the race meter …
Today we generally need a building permit when we upgrade existing antennas. So it is a process that we know. Of course, then there will be many more objections. But I prefer that to the scenario where we will never have 5G in Switzerland.
But at some point the train just left?
Naturally. We saw a similar case with the fiber optic network. Switzerland was one of the first countries to start with it. Six years ago we were among the best positioned countries in Europe. Today Spain and Portugal have 100 percent fiber optic coverage. Switzerland stands at 35 percent.
Critics of 5G call for the fiber optic network to be expanded with the aim of making indoor calls using only fiber optic. They want to greatly minimize the number of antennas needed.
That ignores the laws of physics. But it also doesn’t make economic sense to cover more than 70 percent of homes in Switzerland with fiber optics. It costs a fortune to connect all the farms. It is precisely those places that must be accessible, just think of the growing importance of smart agriculture and telemedicine. That is why cellular communications are the only sensible way to provide coverage.
That no longer seems possible in Switzerland without Huawei. The top three telecommunications companies rely on the Chinese group’s technology. But criticism of this cooperation is growing.
I don’t want to downplay the discussion, but it’s overheated because of the US-China trade war. We want to access Huawei’s technology, but also create the security of not being at their mercy. We have already taken many measures to prevent outside intrusions.
Can you imagine Switzerland without 5G?
It would be a bankruptcy filing for Switzerland as a business location.
Does radiation from 5G antennas harm people, animals and nature? Yes, say those who oppose the new technology and he lists hundreds of international studies to back up his claim. No, counter the defenders, and point out so many studies that are supposed to show: 5G does not harm anything or anyone! The problem: the many studies are unclear.
In 2011, the International Agency for Cancer Research classified high-frequency non-ionizing radiation, such as that emitted by 5G antennas, as possibly carcinogenic. There is also recognized research in mice showing that radiation can accelerate the growth of aggressive tumors. But the big picture of all the myriad expertise also clearly contradicts the claim that 5G poses a general danger to people and the environment. This is clear from the report of the working group “Mobile communications and radiation” commissioned by the Federal Council. In the document, which was published in 2019, it says: “The working group notes that with mobile radio frequencies used today below limit values, health effects have not been consistently proven.”
