Introduction

UMTS networks are emerging in various parts of the world. These networks supports high bandwidth and features like video call. Effects of the new UMTS network on the heath because of electromagnetic radiations need to be studied. This includes both UMTS stations and UMTS phones.

Radiations in the UMTS network

One could be glad to know that UMTS is using a better technology to encode data over radio signal with a combination of small cell size of UMTS network. Hence, lower power is required for the UMTS network which in turn reduces the radiated power of uMTS network. Moreover, this power is further reduced by a technology called adaptive power control. Adaptive power control continually adjusts radiated power levels to the lowest level required to attain specific radio communication.

A UMTS base station antenna radiates electromagnetic energy similar to 1/10th of the power of a taxi's 2 way radio.
In Australia, the Australian Communication Authority (ACA) has standardised the electromagnetic energy emissions from a transmitters. e.g. for a UMTS transmitter, the exposure limit for radiofrequency EMR from UMTS base stations is 10 W/m2 or 1,000 µW/cm2.

When average electromagnetic emissions from a UMTS network at a 200 meter distance were measured, they were 20 times less than the emissions from a human body (blackbody radiations). This shows that UMTS networks are very efficient in handling the radiations factor.

Radiation from UMTS handsets

UMTS handsets operate at lower energy than traditional GSM and CDMA phones. From reliable resources, a 3G phone can emit a maximum of 0.125 watts on 5 MHz bandwidth, while GSM cellphones emit an average power of about 0.25 watts on a 0.2 MHz bandwidth. CDMA handsets have a maximum power of 1 watt. As these were the maximum figures from UMTS, with adaptive power control technology, UMTS phones have the capability to operate on minimum power required for standard communication.