Not just 5g, all the news of the Competition bill
The amendment to the Competition bill which allows the raising of exposure limits to electromagnetic fields was approved by the IX Senate Commission. And not only. Facts and insights
News on 5G, electromagnetic fields and outdoor spaces.
Here are all the details on the Competition bill.
DOSSIER ON ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND 5G
The amendment to the Competition Bill which allows the raising of the limits of exposure to electromagnetic fields was approved by the IX Senate Commission. This was announced by the Minister of Business, Adolfo Urso, in a note where he comments: "Italy is finally moving in the European direction, making up for decades-long delays". “This measure – he says – represents an important turning point for the country's development: it will in fact improve mobile connectivity in the area, guaranteeing a higher quality of services for citizens and will allow businesses to become more competitive. We said it and we did it."
THE COMPARISON WITH EUROPE
With the increase in the limits to electromagnetic emissions foreseen by an amendment to the competition bill provisionally indicated at 15 volts per meter, pending the implementing decrees, Italy would remain below the European limit of 60 volts per meter and the thresholds set from all other Member States. This is what we learn from sources from the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy who underline that "Countries such as Germany and Spain have adopted the maximum limits for over 20 years" without finding anomalies in the population. Furthermore, the raising of the limits would guarantee, according to this analysis, "the improvement of the quality of the service (in terms of coverage) immediately, with positive effects on citizens in terms of voice and data, reducing the economic impact on operators and proliferation of antennas on the territory". Again according to this analysis, 62% of existing sites in urban areas were found not to be upgradeable to 5G due to emission limits and the extra costs to develop 5G coverage due to stringent limits are approximately 1.3 billion euros per operator.
MINISTER URSO'S COMMENT
The Meloni government "kept the promises made" and allowed "common sense to prevail", after having discussed with all the interested parties with the approval of two new amendments to the Competition Bill at the Industry, Commerce, Tourism, Agriculture and agri-food production of the Senate, Urso underlined : “An important measure «for the development of the country which will in fact improve mobile connectivity in the area, guaranteeing a higher quality of services for citizens and will allow businesses to become more competitive».
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
The amendment to the Competition bill on electromagnetic fields approved in the Senate commission establishes a deadline of 120 days to adapt the exposure limits, the attention values and the quality objectives with a decree of the President of the Council of Ministers in agreement with the Conference unified "in order to strengthen the mobile network and guarantee users and businesses the offer of high quality connectivity services, without prejudice to public health". Once this deadline has expired, in the absence of the adjustment rules and until they are definitively adopted, the attention values and quality objectives are "provisionally and precautionary" set, as regards the electric field intensity at a value equal to 15 volts per meter. Until now the attention value and the quality target were set at 6 volts per meter.
DOSSIER DEHOR
The Senate Industry Committee gives the green light to an amendment to the competition bill which extends the simplifying regime for dehors and outdoor tables until December 2024. This was announced by the Undersecretary for Business and Made in Italy Massimo Bitonci, who represents the government on the measure. “Good approval. The concessions for the occupation of public land have been providential for increasing earnings during the pandemic period and continue to be for our bar and restaurant operators. The extension is an important sign of support for the many commercial businesses."
The amendment, first signed by De Priamo (FdI), extends for another year the possibility for operators to temporarily use public land without paying the fee for the occupation of public areas. The current deadline of 31 December 2023 is thus moved to 31 December 2024. Without the extension, explains Bitonci, the many operators who have invested in setting up these structures "would have to suddenly give up on them while waiting for the authorizations to be issued". “A measure that aims to allow us to keep alive a model of consumption at outdoor tables which, also thanks to the climate situation, has now stabilized in the habits of the users of these activities”, explains FdI senator Andrea De Priamo, who announces: "FdI is simultaneously working for a bill that makes this experience stable and no longer emergency, without prejudice to compliance with safety regulations and the highway code and the fight against any form of illegal activity".
THE REACTIONS
In fact, Fipe-Confcommercio, the Italian Federation of Public Businesses, defines it as «excellent not only for catering businesses, which will be able to promote an orderly development of their commercial activities, but also, and above all, for local administrations, which will have the 'opportunity to redevelop urban spaces at the same time, enhancing the country's architectural, artistic and monumental heritage", we read in a note.
“Another amendment which, in the name of pseudo greater productivity, does not take into account the health of citizens. The amendment to the Competition Bill which increases the threshold for electromagnetic fields from 0.6 V/m to as much as 15 V/m, on an average calculated over 24 hours, is totally unacceptable. Without a technical analysis, without taking into account the many existing sentences. It's very serious. As Minister of the Environment I believed I had to apply the precautionary principle, not raising the limits. A principle that this government continually tramples on." Thus in a note the vice president of the Chamber Sergio Costa comments on the government's decision to raise the threshold for electromagnetic fields.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/non-solo-5g-tutte-le-novita-del-ddl-concorrenza/ on Fri, 27 Oct 2023 14:01:32 +0000.