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AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are pushing into the home internet market with plug-in devices that connect wirelessly to cell towers — a move that could more than double household radiation exposure, warned Kent Chamberlin, Ph.D., past chair and professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at the University of New Hampshire.
Telecom companies are luring people away from traditional wired internet service providers (ISPs) with promises of better connections and more affordable prices, some as low as $35 per month.
People who enroll receive a small device that plugs into a standard electrical outlet and distributes internet access within the home via Wi-Fi. Unlike conventional routers that connect via cables, the device establishes a wireless connection with nearby cell towers and antennas.
“In most cases, you are going to more than double the [radiofrequency] radiation exposure in your home by adding this device, because your Wi-Fi devices are communicating with this little box — and that little box is connecting to the internet via wireless infrastructure,” Chamberlin said.
Wireless home internet is also less secure, less reliable and slower than cabled internet, he said.
Chamberlin is a science adviser and the former president of the Environmental Health Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research and education on the effects of wireless radiation. He is also a special expert on the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields.
Profit opportunity ‘too great for telecom to pass up’
Last year, the internet service market was valued at over $500 billion, with residential services accounting for nearly half of the total. By 2030, the internet market is expected to exceed $875 billion.
“With the expected growth, the opportunities for profit appear to be too great for telecom to pass up, despite the clear health and cybersecurity concerns,” Chamberlin said.
Attorney Robert Berg, who represents residents fighting proposed cell towers or wireless antenna placements near homes or schools, agreed.
“As a business model, all the major telecoms now are trying to be the single source of all your internet needs, and they’re trying to use their wireless systems to do that,” he said.
However, the only way the wireless industry can overtake wired ISPs is to build out wireless infrastructure beyond what is needed for cellphone communications.
That’s the real reason telecom companies are pushing to install cell towers and antennas in places that already have good cell coverage, Chamberlin said.
“People need to know why towers are being placed in places where they aren’t needed,” he said, adding:
“Once people hear about the industry’s motivation — and know the magnitude of that motivation — a lot of things click into place. The aggressive rollout of wireless infrastructure appears to be motivated by corporate greed at the expense of people’s health and security.”
Chamberlin said the wireless companies’ motives became clear when he was serving on the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Environmental and Health Effects of Evolving 5G Technology. Chamberlin and other independent experts reported to state legislators on the environmental and health effects of cell towers and wireless radiation.
“We were trying to figure out why new towers were being proposed in places that clearly didn’t need them,” Chamberlin said. It’s because “the companies want to increase their profits and extending into the home internet market is one way to achieve that goal.”
Until recently, cell towers were largely confined to industrial parks and other areas permitted under local zoning laws, Chamberlin said.
Now, wireless companies want to dominate the home internet market, so they are pushing for cell tower sites in or near residential areas. These applications usually require a variance or special-use permit.
Wireless internet threatens public safety and home security
Wireless companies routinely propose new or taller cell towers, citing public safety needs.
Last year, officials told Florida parents that children needed a cell tower next to the school to stay safe in an active-shooter scenario. That claim was false, yet the wireless industry routinely spreads similar fear-based arguments, according to an earlier investigation by The Defender.
Wired internet is much better for protecting public safety, especially in times of emergency, Chamberlin said.
For example, a terrorist wanting to take out communication capabilities in an area could disable a cell tower using readily available, low-cost jammers. If nearby residents relied on that tower for both regular phone calls and Wi-Fi calls, they would have no means of communication.
However, if residents accessed the internet through wired cables rather than the cell tower, they could still use Wi-Fi to communicate. Jamming doesn’t disable wired telephone service either.
Fiber-based internet, which uses fiber-optic cables, is much faster and more reliable than wireless networks, including 5G, according to a 2018 report by the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy.
Wireless networks that rely on cell towers can fail during times of high use. This is especially true during emergencies, when large numbers of people are trying to place calls at once, Chamberlin said.
The U.S. Department of Justice funded research by Chamberlin to determine how wireless infrastructure performs during emergencies. His findings showed that wireless networks are highly vulnerable to both jamming and hacking.
A robber could easily acquire cheap jamming devices online and temporarily knock out a home’s internet connection and wireless security system, Chamberlin said.
Last year, Fox 2 Detroit reported on a string of break-ins in which thieves used jamming technology to disrupt the security systems in individual homes.
Criminals also could build a large-scale jammer, “go into a neighborhood, turn it on, and then nobody could communicate wirelessly,” Chamberlin said.
Wired is ‘future proof,’ while wireless traps people into needing costly upgrades
The initial cost to convert a home to wireless internet is very low, especially since the homeowner no longer has to pay their ISP, such as a local cable company.
However, Chamberlin said, “Once you’re all in and you’ve put your wired ISPs out of business, they [the wireless companies] can jack the price up to whatever they want.”
And while fiber internet doesn’t require costly software upgrades, wireless internet likely will.
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“That’s also why going with wireless is not bridging the digital divide,” Chamberlin said. “Bridging the digital divide is allowing people to use technology that is not going to change and is inexpensive.”
Hawaii made news earlier this year when it announced plans to become the “first fully fiber-enabled state” by 2026.
Fiber is “future proof,” Chamberlin said, so “once you’ve installed it, you don’t do anything with it.”
“You plug the cable into your computer, and you have great connectivity, high speed, low radiation, high security — all the things you want out of your connectivity to the internet,” he added.
Chamberlin said he is currently using Ethernet cables to connect to the internet. He installed the cables in his home in the mid-1990s, and he hasn’t needed to pay for upgrades since, he said.
But “from what I’ve seen, it appears that [the wireless] industry is willing to jeopardize all that just in the name of profit,” Chamberlin added.
Related articles in The Defender- Florida Parents Reject ‘Absurd’ Active Shooter Narrative, Succeed in Keeping Cell Tower Off School Property
- Wireless Radiation Sickness Gets a New Name: ‘EMR Syndrome’
- Residents of Hawaii’s Big Island Pass Law to Keep Cell Towers Away from Homes, Schools
- ‘No Place in Our Community’: Santa Cruz Residents Sue County Over AT&T Cell Tower
- Residents of Alaska Town Battle to Keep 120-ft Cell Tower Out of Neighborhood
