ONE of the greatest challenges of telco companies is to address the misconception of the community on radiation from towers, Packet One Networks (Malaysia) chief operating officer M. Idham Nawawi said.

Idham said this at a briefing on the company’s services to Petaling Jaya city councillors and department heads at the Petaling Jaya City Council headquarters.

“When we receive complaints from residents on our new telco towers we have to dismantle it even though the site has been approved.

“Each time we take one down, at least 200 people will lose their connections,” said Idham, adding that Packet One would be investing RM81mil to build its network infrastructure in Selangor next year.

The misconception among the residents was the towers posed as a health hazard because it has high radiation readings.

Malaysian Nuclear Agency non-ionising radiation group manager Dr Wan Saffiey Wan Abdullah, who gave a presentation on the radiation waves, said this was not true.

“The P1 wimax antenna, which I checked had very low radiation level ranging from six watts and below as compared with a microwave oven which has at least 1,000 to 2,000 watts,” said Wan Saffiey.

More at http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/12/24/central/7678765&sec=central

By CHRISTINA LOW christinalow@thestar.com.my