Lithuania wants to bring 5G connectivity to all households in the country by 2030. However, network development is hampered by concerns about health effects and “visual pollution” of communications towers.
A year ago, the community of the village of Antkoptis, in Klaipėda District, organised a protest against plans to erect a communications antenna. Today, however, the tower stands 60-metre tall.
“Yes, we objected. [...] But now the connection is good, everybody is happy,” says one local resident.
“Nobody knew what it was. And now many people complain about TV interference,” adds another resident.
Mobile service providers say that when they start talking about 5G, which is supposed to provide faster data transmission, some people immediately turn oppositional.
“They complain that the tower visible near their apartment block might have some negative effects on their health,” says Jaunius Špakauskas, spokesman for Bitė Lietuva. “We have sent independent experts to measure the electromagnetic field in the building and it is several times lower than the limit.
“The inspectors then say – can we measure the electromagnetic field from your microwave oven, where you heat food for your children? The electromagnetic field emitted by the microwave oven exceeded the norm several times.”
The European Union’s goal is for all households to have access to 5G by 2030. However, building the base stations takes longer than everyone would like, says the chief technology officer of Telia Lietuva.
“There are even towns in Lithuania where the authorities block development quoting ‘visual pollution’,” says Andrius Šemeškevičius.
According to telecoms companies, the most difficult and slow part of the process is building antennas in the border regions.
“There are power limits, you can’t turn the transmitter towards Belarus. So if we have a station that is 10 km from the Belarus border, it can’t work at normal power in that direction, we have to reduce the power. Accordingly, you need more stations there, but the border is a forested area where it is very difficult to obtain construction permits,” Šemeškevičius says.
“We are beginning to think that satellite communications can be a complementary technological tool in places where there is either no or very weak connectivity,” suggests Darius Kuliešius, vice-chairman of the Communications Regulatory Authority (RRT).
Lithuania plans to switch off its old 3G networks and speed up the roll-out of next-generation 4G and 5G networks. According to RRT data, there are over 2,000 5G base stations in the country at the moment.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
