S&P Bearish on 5G, Tesla’s Coil and the T-Mobile Merger

By Renee Parsons

The FCC, the telecoms and cooperating MSM continue their resolute PR campaign to sell 5G to an unsuspecting American public as if the technology is up and running at effortless full capacity.  The truth is that even as ‘spotty’ coverage is being established in large urban markets, the telecoms are well aware that there are fundamental uncertainties yet to be addressed which may take years before widespread distribution can be accomplished.

The industry is driven by the hard reality that consumer indifference to increased data speed may be enough to threaten a return on their $275 billion investment thereby encouraging the telecoms to manufacture an insatiable demand for some new digital bells and whistles.  This is not to say that 5G is in jeopardy of being developed but that its cellular identity may be amended to focus more on the 30 GHz and higher projects.

The reality is, according to Scott Fulton, there is no single, simple way to create a new wireless technology on the scale of 5G.  Fulton compares the upgrade from 4G to 5G as akin to going from a telegraph to a fax machine.  As he explains, a wireless generation is a combination of technologies, all with multiple dimensions and differing standards, that must be integrated to form one mobile technological entity.  The 5G concept is not conducive to plugging one new generation into another but requires a level of co-existence as one merges with another, as new standards integrate with the old standards – all of which may take years.   As we know from the National Security Council power point, 5G is being built from the ground up as a brand new entity.

In other words, creating a new generation of digital technology is a lot more complicated with rollout not ready for some years to come, even as the push for 6G begins to muddy the waters.

In addition, a recent Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings gave credence to the possibility that the telecoms are taking on more than they are able to deliver:  “for U.S. telecommunications companies, we have a cautious view on 5G wireless.  We believe that accelerated deployments could hurt balance sheets that are already stretched because of mergers and acquisitions, mature industry conditions, and competitive pressures.”

In a warning to investors, S&P cited “revenue growth associated with 5G will be constrained” as they questioned whether consumers are willing to spend more just to experience faster speeds on new devices.  S&P continued “our forecast for 5G investment and customer appetite is bearish, so any incremental increase cost or delay should be nonmaterial to the ratings” and that “the bulk of the (Internet of Things) revenue opportunities may not materialize for at least five to 10 years”  as AT&T and Verizon could wait up to ten year for a pay back on their investment.

Tesla’s Coil

In 1891, the brilliant Nikola Tesla, Yugoslavian physicist, engineer and inventor created the Tesla Coil which became the first high voltage transmission of wireless electricity utilizing an electro magnetic force.  The Coil radiated sufficient volts of artificial lightening to illuminate a fluorescent bulb with no electrical wire connection as Tesla also dared theorize on the possibility of death rays.

Some believe that Tesla derived his genius from interstellar spheres as he once suggested that “if you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy frequency and vibration” while displaying an intuitive recognition of the existence of the ionosphere, a premonition of plasma as the fourth state of matter and what today has been dubbed ‘free’ energy.   More famous for revolutionizing our understanding of electricity with his patent for AC (alternating) current, his prescient quote  “…in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration.  I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core but I know that it exists” further suggests a consciousness that had penetrated a “secret core” as another level of reality.  Today, AC is also known as radio frequency waves in the telecommunication world with the difference being the level of frequency on the spectrum.

After having his inventions ridiculed, laughed at and/or stolen by Thomas Edison, Marconi, George Westinghouse and lastly, JP Morgan who failed to grasp the significance of a global wireless communication network, Tesla experienced how a small independent inventor could be squeezed out by the rapacious robber baron class which continues to this day.  After his death in 1943, some of his remaining paperwork was confiscated by the US government and some became enshrined in a museum in Yugoslavia.   As the spirit of Tesla lives on through ingenious inventors of the day, there is reportedly a way to connect an android phone to the internet without wifi service.

T-Mobile Sprint Merger

Speaking of robber barons, the recent Department of Justice approval of a $26 billion mergerbetween T-Mobile and Sprint reduced four major national wireless carriers to three thus creating another impossibly unwieldy mega-monster titan while assuring that Rural America’s Digital Divide will continue.  In a late hour concession to rural consumers, one of the divestiture requirements included the sale of “certain spectrum assets,” 20,000 cell sites, retail storefronts and total use of the T-Mobile network for seven years to Dish, a Colorado-based satellite TV provider as it builds its own 5G network in the expectation of ultimately becoming a fourth major carrier.

With the ink barely dry, T-Mobile CEO John Legere wasted no time in asserting that T Mobile’s  acquisition of Spectrum would offer a “true nationwide capability that this country needs that nobody else has” and that owning all three frequency bands, each containing different properties and ability to transmit data, is crucial to 5G’s success.

Radio Frequency Spectrum is a fixed, finite resource on the electromagnetic spectrum that enables wireless telecommunication to function.   With a radio frequency from 3 KHz to 300 GHz (gigahertz), 5G will utilize low- and mid-band frequencies as well as the higher mm Wavefrequency which is an essential indicator as to the true purpose and intent of 5G.

In other words, while T-Mobile has shrewdly accumulated all three bands to create what it believes will be unbeatable in the marketplace, AT&T and Verizon are no match for their market dominance.  Currently, both Verizon and AT&T own low-band spectrum and the more expensive and complex mmWave.  Neither owns any of the highly desirable, more versatile, mid-band spectrum necessary for urban and rural usage.

Legere then proceeded to attack the two remaining carriers as “dead in the water” and “lying”  as the merger put T-Mobile in the driver’s seat as Sprint was the only telecom to own any of the mid-band spectrum.  The merger gave T-Mobile the opportunity to consolidate all three bands under one company. In addition, at the recent FCC auction in March, T-Mobile spent $840 million to quadruple their mmWave holdings which will facilitate the Internet of Things, AI’s and the Directed Energy Weapons.

With three remaining carriers there is little real expectation that T-Mobile will live up to its earlier promises to provide rural America with cellular service and that 99% of the country will be wired within six years.  The cost for installing thousands of miles of fiber cable and 200,000-plus cell sites required to make a 5G network operational will be an extensive project and cost $60 billion more than proposed.  Still pending is S3157, the Streamline Small Cell Deployment Act which will curtail local government role in locating 5G towers.  If and when 5G makes it to rural America, it promises to be prohibitively expensive.

The last remaining requirement for the merger is final approval by the five-member Federal Communications Commission although their vote is little more than a technicality.  The three Republican appointees to the Commission announced their support, although two of them admitted they had not read the necessary documentation; thereby winning the “Bobbing Head Award of the Week.”

….to be continued

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T-Mobile CEO says Verizon’s 5G plan is ‘fake,’ ‘clueless,’ and ‘dead in the water’

AT&T is “lying, confusing people”

T-Mobile CEO John Legere took something of a victory lap this afternoon, using a call with investors to trash talk his rivals’ 5G plans now that T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint has federal approval. Legere called Verizon “dead in the water without a strategy” and said AT&T has been “lying” and “confusing” customers about its deployment.

Legere laid out a coherent and entertaining (and if you’re his competitors, insulting) vision of the current state of 5G strategies while on the call. Of course, it’s all premised on the idea that T-Mobile, once combined with Sprint, has the one true vision for 5G, which is more than debatable. But his explanation isn’t necessarily wrong, either.

The TL;DR is that Legere believes 5G requires low-band, mid-band, and high-band spectrum in order to work, and the combined T-Mobile is the only carrier that has access to all that.

AT&T and Verizon both have high-band (millimeter wave, or mmWave) spectrum, which delivers extremely fast speeds, but it’s only useful at very short ranges. They also both have low-band spectrum, which is what’s already used for LTE. Mid-band spectrum, which Sprint has, can deliver somewhat faster speeds at somewhat longer distances, offering T-Mobile more flexibility.

LEGERE’S BREAKDOWN IS PREMISED ON MID-BAND, WHICH ONLY SPRINT HAS, BEING CRITICAL TO 5G

Verizon has focused its 5G talk on the deployment of mmWave, and Legere says that a “mmWave-only strategy ... will not work” because it’ll cost too much. AT&T has emphasized that it’s working on upgrading its LTE network to transform it into 5G service (albeit, while misleading customers in the process through confusing branding). Legere says those upgrades are the right approach, but that AT&T has “a big hole” in its plan because of the lack of mid-band.

Whether mid-band is truly necessary for 5G is very much up for debate — Sprint, which owns mid-band spectrum, has described itself as mostly doomed when it comes to 5G because that’s all it has to rely on. T-Mobile’s ability to combine that spectrum with other offerings is why Legere is leaning back and ripping apart his rivals.

AT&T isn’t taking his criticism particularly seriously. “Oh look, Legere is back. They were last to 5G, but he’s already the expert,” an AT&T spokesperson told The Verge. We’ve reached out to Verizon for comment as well.

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have all started rolling out their 5G networks this year, though so far availability is extremely limited, to the point where it’d be a waste of money to buy a 5G device, potentially even if you lived in one of the few areas where there is availability. Deployment is expected to increase significantly over the next year, particularly as carriers begin to step up their 5G rollouts outside of the very limited mmWave deployments we’ve see now.

T-MOBILE STILL HAS TO WAIT FOR THE DEAL TO CLOSE BEFORE USING SPRINT’S SPECTRUM

It’ll be at least a couple months before T-Mobile can start to do anything with Sprint’s assets, though. The deal needs time to close, and several states still have lawsuits open against the deal. The settlement proposed today with the DOJ could help to resolve some of those issues, but states like California may wish to see even more concessions.

T-Mobile and Sprint reached a deal to have their merger approved by the Department of Justice earlier today. The deal requires the combined company to sell off a number of assets to Dish, including wireless spectrum and prepaid wireless brands like Boost Mobile, and for the company to let Dish piggyback on its network for up to seven years.

The merger had been pending for more than a year while it underwent review. The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger in May, but the Justice Department maintained concerns that allowing the two companies to combine would harm competition in the wireless market, as it would remove the two underdogs and create a third giant that’s relatively equally matched to competitors AT&T and Verizon.

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A Slow Death by 5G Wireless Technology

Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD
Progressive Radio Network, July 9, 2019


During the past year, Senate hearings leading up to the roll out of 5G wireless technology have made it quite clear that the race to capture first prize in the Internet of Things has little do to with popular consumer demands for improved internet access. Being called the fourth industrial revolution, the hype is that 5G will provide internet speeds up to one hundred times faster than 4G. Yet aside from the idealized and perhaps hyperbolic benefits of faster internet connections and downloads, 5G is best understood within the context of the US’ competitive race against China to establish global wireless dominance.  The Obama administration’s FCC, under the influence of the telecommunication industry’s insider Tom Wheeler, who served as the chair of the agency, launched the Spectrum Frontiers rules to mandate the 5G rollout as a “national priority.” Therefore, rather than the fundamental incentive to improve the lives of citizens, more important is 5G’s role to reinforce American global economic expansionism and military hegemony. For past presidents, and Trump in particular, economic figures hold all-consuming importance. One estimate claims 5G will bring over $12 trillion into the global economy, about $3.5 trillion in the US while providing 22 million new jobs. While 5G surely holds the promise of a huge windfall for the economy, these benefits will be eventually be neutralized by medical and environmental catastrophes.  

For the Defense Department, 5G will further harness global military dominance and strengthen the US’ lead as the planet’s policeman. For the Department of Homeland Security, other federal intelligence agencies, and local law enforcement 5G assures more far-reaching surveillance and policing on the American public. International spying and interference in other nations’ internal affairs will also advance exponentially. All the while the telecommunications industry wets its lips over the certain forecasts of rising stock prices and enormous executive compensations. 

For the Trump administration, the 5G roll out is imperative. Last December the White House released an announcement that “[I]t is imperative that America be first in fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies — wireless technologies capable of meeting the high-capacity, low-latency, and high-speed requirements that can unleash innovation broadly across diverse sectors of the economy and the public sector.”  What we are really looking at is a competitive war the US is waging with China, which has already installed 1.9 million wireless sites.  As the US continues to lag behind, it is equally imperative that 5G opponents keep careful watch of the predictable rise in disease and mental health disorders in China. 

5G smart cities will provide the government with total surveillance of society. This was announced by T-Mobile’s Chief Technology director Neville Ray at the 2018 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Sprint Vice President Ron Marquardt remarked that city government officials will have the capacity to monitor “security issues.” The new generation technology, therefore, will offer a boon for the private security industry. 

Writing for The New Yorker, investigative journalist Sue Halpern describes how the new era of electromagnetic connectivity will increase the risks and severity of cyber attacks. “Ransomware, malware, crypto-jacking, identity theft, and data breaches have become so common that more Americans are afraid of cybercrime than they are of becoming a victim of violent crime.” writes Halpern.  “Adding more devices to the online universe is destined to create more opportunities for disruption.” 5G will not simply connect your alarm clock and television to your mobile unit. It is estimated that millions of new 5G base stations will be installed, 20,000 new satellites orbiting in space, and 200 billion objects with wireless antennas will be transmitting EMF waves by 2020. A few years later it is expected to expand to one trillion electronic objects.  5G technology will be fully integrated into airplanes, automobiles, trains and subway systems. Imagine being in a commercial flight 6 miles above the earth and a major 5G disturbance occurs. 

5G servers are already being utilized for spy operations. Halpern reports on the discovery of Huawei wireless servers installed in the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa “sending sensitive data back to China every evening.”  Israel, Russia and the US have already been accused on many occasions for conducting industrial and defense cyber espionage. On all accounts, the threats of cyber warfare will worsen after 5G is functioning fully on a global scale. 

In the meantime, Washington and our mainstream media proclaim 5G is perfectly safe and the next great stride for America’s utopian progress. Yet it may very well be the trojan horse that brings the US into an electronic dark age. 

The overarching question being ignored by Congress concerns 5G’s public safety and environmental implications. During a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing last February, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) challenged representatives from the telecommunication industry about the technology’s health risks. When queried on the industry’s commitment to comply with the FDA’s insistence to fund “independent research” on EMF’s biological effects, Brad Gillen, an executive VP for CTIA – the leading trade association representing the wireless communications industry — denied there were any industry-funded studies and no research on 5G’s health risks were active. Nor was Steven Berry, President of Competitive Carriers Association, aware of any ongoing research. Blumenthal also sent a formal request to Trump’s FCC Secretary requesting information about the scientific evaluation of 5G’s risks. The FCC failed to acknowledge his request. 

Besides the unbelievable arrogance displayed by the industry’s spokespersons, from our perspective it is perhaps worse that Senator Blumenthal, a ranking committee member and highly respected in Congress, failed to present any of the scientific literature confirming 5G’s health risks. He could have also subpoenaed the FCC for ignoring his request. He has unlimited resources through the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health medical database, the EPA, and FDA yet didn’t cite a single study nor invite an independent medical expert to testify what we already know about 5G’s and earlier generation’s EFM adverse effects on the human body. Dr. Henry Lai, a DNA researcher at the University of Washington could have been called to testify. Prof Lai was quoted in the British Medical Journal for stating “I can name 600 studies showing bioeffects of microwaves off the top of my head.” Earlier this year, a petition signed by 26,000 scientists, medical doctors and environmental experts warned the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the EU and Council of Europe and the governments of all nations that “the deployment of 5G constitutes an experiment on humanity and the environment that is defined as a crime under international law.”  

The Senate hearing was another typical dog and pony show that we have become accustomed to over the decades, with pro-industry shills declaring ignorance of facts, and pleading for a green light while repeating false promises to conduct further research. In the meantime, Congress concedes to industry demands because revenues are being lost and shareholders are becoming impatient. We have heard this all before with the approval of asbestos, Monsanto’s glyphosate and genetically modified crops, tobacco and countless pharmaceutical drugs with questionable safety and efficacy records.  

May’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on 5G was even more of a charade. Senators Lindsay Graham and Barbara Feinstein completely avoided the evidence supporting 5G’s detrimental effects on human, animal, insect and environmental health. The 5G rollout was a certainty in the mind of every Committee member. Questioning of industry representatives focused solely on national security and cyber threats to the Internet of Things. Nor were the larger public consequences of safety from having all electronic systems controlled by artificial intelligence suddenly being disabled discussed. Clearly national security, protecting the country’s military, intelligence and the elite trumps health issues.  Since no modern military can realistically win a conventional war, then how likely will the next war between superpowers be waged in the cyber world? This possibility seemed foremost in the minds of our Senators.

The FCC is a fully industry-captured agency. In 1996, President Clinton willingly handed over to the telecommunications industry carte blanche power over state and local governments to install 5G technologies. Clinton’s Telecommunications Act (TCA) is a corrupt piece of legislation. It decrees that no health or environmental concern can interfere with telecom installations. In addition, the TCA gives full power to the FCC to regulate telecom EMF’s health effects. This ruling was a dangerous joke because the FCC is not a health agency, nor does it employ biomedical experts. The Act also overrides the authority of towns, cities, and county councils to rule against 5G stations and cell tower installments. 

Under President Obama, FCC chair Tom Wheeler in no uncertain terms called for the private industry’s technology to drive national policy rather than vice versa. In other words, the telecommunications industrial complex has been handed precedence over elected legislators, including Congressional leaders, such as Senator Blumenthal, who voice deep concerns about 5G’s human and environmental risks. Wheeler, a principal architect behind the 5G strategy, has never acknowledged that there is an enormous body of medical research concluding EMF threats. He is a product of the same private industrial mindset that has churned out climate change deniers in the fossil fuel corporations and the GMO-risk deniers in Big Agriculture. 

Obama’s FCC also established a criterion whereby  the technology antecedes the warnings voiced by medical, health and environmental institutions and agencies. And under Trump and the chairmanship of Ajit Pai, the FCC’s corruption has entered steroidal hyper-drive to destroy net neutrality laws and “dismantle existing consumer protections.” Pai, a former Verizon attorney, was originally appointed by Obama and has been accused by the New York Times for running the department in secrecy and failing to make the agency’s internal policy decisions public. 

It therefore seems certain that Washington, in full collaboration with the telecommunications industry, has been scheming full spectrum dominance of the global wireless connectivity for two and half decades. During this time, the tactic has been to demolish public protections. In return for America’s efforts to achieve telecommunication hegemony in order to expand the police state and the nation’s imperium, average citizens are handed the leftover crumbs of faster internet speeds.  The real victims in the US’ cyber chess match with China is the world’s population.  No animal, bird, insect, plant or human will be able to avoid exposure. 5G will expose us to levels of radiation that are tens to hundreds of times greater than what we face today. And this exposure will be uninterrupted throughout the day, throughout the year and well into the future. It is now just a matter of a short period of time before we will all be saturated with microwave pulses. 

Unfortunately, the telecom industry and its contracted scientists remain in complete denial.  A plethora of medical and environmental research has accumulated about the health and ecological risks of electromagnetic frequency radiation (EMF) and microwaves. Four hundred new studies on electromagnetic radiation risks have been compiled by public health Professor Joel Moskowitz at the University of California at Berkeley. These studies cover earlier generation technologies, whereas 5G will be far more evasive and less safe. Compared to 4G technology in use today, every 5G base station will contain hundreds of thousands of antennas each aiming laser like microwave beams to all devices. 

In a study published in the August 2018 issue of Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics, after an extensive review and analysis of the medical literature researchers concluded that “incidence of cancer cases was remarkably higher among people who resided in 400 meters from mobile antennas, in comparison to those who lived further away. Inhabitants living close to cellular antennas are also at increased risk for developing neuropsychiatric complaints.” Under the 5G regime every American in a suburb or city will be living 100 meters or less from an antenna. In 2016, the Europa EM-EMF guideline found “strong evidence that long-term exposure to certain EMFs is a risk factor for diseases such as certain cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, and male infertility…Common EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity) symptoms include headaches, concentration difficulties, sleep problems, depression, lack of energy, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms.”

In our opinion, the 5G rollout is an irresponsible experiment with potential holocaust-like consequences in the long term. Neither the US nor China have ever felt obliged to follow UNESCO’s Precautionary Principle to avoid “morally unacceptable harm” when the science is plausible but still uncertain. In the case of 5G, the harm to human life is conclusive, and in the view of Dr. Lennart Hardel, an oncology professor at University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden, it may be in violation of the Nuremberg Code.

Among the many research papers on the adverse effects of electromagnetic radiation, some are especially worrisome:

Nearly 100% of studies employing real mobile phone exposures reveal adverse effects, which include associations to brain tumors, declines in animal populations, and symptoms of un-wellness. (published in BioMed Research International).

Children are at greater risk than adults and absorb more microwave radiation than adults. (Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure)

The geometry of a child’s head significantly increases mobile phone EMF absorption in the brain, eye, cortex, hippocampus, and hypothalamus. Children have especially high bone marrow conductivity, greatly increasing EMF absorption.(published in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology)

Simultaneous exposure to lead and RF from mobile phone use was associated with increased ADHD symptom risk.(Published in PLOS One)

Chronic multi-system illness” correlates electromagnetic hypersensitivity to 3 MHz-300 GHz, with headaches, concentration difficulties, sleep problems, depression, lack of energy, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms. (published in Reviews of Environmental Health).

Oxidative stress due to 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz microwave exposure associated with cognitive impairment and inflammation in rat brain (Published in the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology)

Use of laptop computers connected to internet through Wi-Fi decreases human sperm motility and increases sperm DNA fragmentation (published in the journal Fertility and Sterility)

Radiofrequency waves emitted from conventional Wi-Fi devices poses potential effect on both fertility and the integrity of sperm cells. (Published in the Journal of Pediatric Urology)

Population living within 350 meters of an 850 MHz, 1500 watt cell phone tower in Netanya, Israel experienced a 4 fold cancer increase (i.e., carcinoma of the breast, ovary, lung, kidney, bone, and Hodgkin’s disease). (published in the International Journal of Cancer Prevention).

In addition there is something largely missing from the 5G debate in the US, whereas some European nations are paying attention to it; that is, existing safety standards for wireless technology are obsolete. This conclusion was arrrived at independently by Vienna Medical University in Austria and Carl Blackman at the University of North Carolina, published in the journal Pathophysiology. The problem herein lies in the failures of federal regulatory agencies to be truthful to the scientific evidence rather than show favoritism to the wireless industry’s own junk science and commercial interests. Again, private interests profit, and the public is harmed. 

Finally, we may consider 5G’s vulnerability and dangers to society in the event of a solar storm, such as a massive coronal plasma emission (CPE). Such a threat is very real, as University of Michigan professor of space sciences Justin Kasper told members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security last February. Kasper specializes in how solar activity effects society. His fears are that a solar flare similar to the one that engulfed the earth in a “magnetic tsunami” in 1859 could potentially wipe out the country’s electrical power grid. Power transformers are massive utilities costing tens of millions of dollars each and generally there are no backups. Therefore, imagine if such a solar storm were to assault a fully installed global 5G wireless network whereupon everything modern culture depends upon is interconnected. Satellite communications will be an essential component of the 5G infrastructure and are defenseless against massive radiation emissions from the sun. Without operative electrical and water utilities, septic systems, gas pumps, air conditioning in summer or heating in winter, for weeks, months and perhaps a year in the event of a massive coronal plasma emission, society as we know it would come to a standstill. Nuclear power plants would likely spiral downward into meltdown. Transportation as we know it would come to a halt. And in the event of a super “magnetic tsunami” chaos could follow.  

Therefore, 5G poses far more problems than even its sharpest critics voice. It is not simply a threat to human health and the environment from constant exposure, but the security of the entire international community of nations is in peril. Our Congressional leaders are a national disgrace for failing to side with the public rather than the telecommunications industry. Obviously contaminating all life on the planet is too insignificant of a concern. In fact, 5G holds the possibility in being another tipping point in the sixth extinction. 

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The stars, G5 cell towers, and electromagnetic radiation exposure

Our ancestors navigated by the stars. Today most of us need a cell phone to know where we are going. That’s sobering. We are out of touch. That’s not to say I am going to be able to navigate by stars anytime soon, but I still like the directions of “turn at this barn”, or “the lake on the left”. And I like maps. They tell a story and give me a visual which does not change.

What I like may be changed forever by new technology. G5 cell service – promised by Verizon, ATT, TMobile and Virgin – speeds up the world and adds a lot of towers, up to 800,000 new towers. That’s a lot of cell coverage. The big companies, Verizon and ATT, already offer G5 service in some urban areas and the companies are promising to bring it to the rural north. My son will be able to stream games, movies, and all more quickly while sitting on the couch. How fabulous is that?

Well, I think it’s a bad idea. G5 adds to our world another level, a higher level of electromagnetic radiation exposure, which is damaging not only to our health but to the world we live in. This service requires lots of new towers, closer together – in some places, once every l2 houses. In short, lots of money for the companies and possibly lots of risk. Add to that the speed in which this is to be deployed, without much of a look at the environmental and cultural impacts, and the problems compound.

Take the birds for example. There used to be millions of them. Fields full of geese, ducks, migratory birds, lakes echoing the sounds of these relatives. Take a good look. They are no more. Bird populations are plummeting quickly in North America – a 40% decline. In May, I traveled to New York City. Once the pigeons would make you crazy. Today there are none. Really, there are no birds. Maybe that’s a result of the insect Armageddon, since we have 50% or more loss in bugs. And birds eat bugs. Maybe it’s because young people do not care for pigeons like their elders who fed them. Maybe it’s because they commit mass suicide, or die offs. Or maybe it’s the 5G which now serves Manhattan.

It’s probably a combination of all. But what if we could roll back one of those, or maybe just have 5G Free Zones, like a few places where instant messaging and streaming doesn’t work. It turns out a number of cities – from Geneva Switzerland (the Swiss are definitely some technology people) to Petaluma, California – are opposing or stopping 5G installations. A federal lawsuit filed by 19 Native nations and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asks for the same questions. Tribes, including the Seminole, Blackfeet, Rosebud Lakota, Crow Creek Dakota and others are concerned about the number of cell towers required for 5G and their impact on sacred sites, and traditional territories, while others are concerned about the health impact.

To be more specific, according to the legal case filed by the tribal governments and the NRDC (Case No. 18-1129, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit), “Infrastructure supporting over 400,000,000 cellular telephones is perhaps the United States’ largest interconnected engineering structure. Existing technology uses large, widely-spaced towers. Carriers envision new networks with smaller towers, perhaps fifty feet tall, placed much closer together, creating smaller area coverage for each cell than existing technology. The FCC [Federal Communications Commission] expects mobile operators to build 55,000 new cell sites in the near term.”

That’s a lot of cell towers. We will be paying for those for sure. Maybe we need to look at where those would go. It turns out this will impact many Indigenous peoples. Native nations have tribal lands, sacred sites and cultural areas outside of present reservation boundaries. That’s, in part, why there is a formal consultation process. It also has to do with legal trust responsibility. The FCC, in fast tracking approval for the 5G network infrastructure, has determined that complying with federal regulations like the National Historic Preservation Act isn’t necessary. As the complaint notes, “The FCC’s concludes that Section 106 consultation is without serious value.” That is a pretty large problem for Native people.

Other groups, particularly environmental groups, are concerned about the health impacts of the 5G network on the natural world. Studies looking at the impact of electromagnetic pollution on wildlife have raised concern. One scientific review notes, “Phone masts located in their living areas are irradiating continuously some species that could suffer long-term effects, like reduction of their natural defenses, deterioration of their health, problems in reproduction and reduction of their useful territory through habitat deterioration.” (Electromagnetic pollution from phone masts. Effects on wildlife, by Alfonso Balmori. 2009)

The research has been underway for awhile, but I was too busy streaming my Netflix to read much. In September of 2017, more than 180 scientists and doctors from 35 countries, recommended a moratorium on the roll-out of the fifth generation, 5G, for telecommunication until potential hazards for human health and the environment are fully investigated by scientists. The scientists want to make sure that the research is conducted independent from industry or corporate influence.

This is the skinny: 5G means a lot more cell towers, on top of the 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, etc. for telecommunications already in place. While Verizon continues to eat up more of my budget, part of it is that 5G will require many more antennas, with a full-scale implementation resulting in antennas every 10 to 12 houses in urban areas. It means we all get zapped, you will not be able to avoid exposure. The studies show that there are increased cancer risks, cellular risk, genetic damages and a bunch of other lousy stuff.
Add to that “10 to 20 billion connections” (to refrigerators, washing machines, surveillance cameras, self-driving cars and buses, etc.) all parts of the “Internet of Things.” That’s the same internet that I love so dearly, from smart phones to smart grid. So, what am I thinking? Take your eyes off that cell phone, or maybe it’s your IPAD, and just take a look around and breathe.

We need to rethink just blindly adopting technology for convenience. If we want this new faster connection, what we may want is more expensive but less damaging: a fiber optic system to wires (even faster), not waves going through living bodies. It’s ok for machines but not biology.

“In 2012, the General Accountability Office found that the existing standards may not reflect current knowledge and recommended that the FCC formally reassess its standards. The FCC’s standards address only one aspect of potential harm from electromagnetic radiation – heat. The current standards do not address other ways in which exposure to increasing electromagnetic radiation from wireless communications can harm human health, as well as the natural systems around us on which all life depends.” (5G and the FCC: 10 Reasons Why You Should Care by Sharon Buccino. 2019)

The concern is a risk of cancer, particularly in heart and brain cells, according to the National Toxicology Program in a 2018 study. I think that most of us know that intuitively you cannot get zapped continuously without consequence. I think that Genie should stay in the bottle for a few years. While you can no longer see the stars in many places, where I live they are clearly in sight. They remind me of my ancestors, the air, and the navigation tools needed for the time ahead.

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