The Benefits and repercussions of the use of mobile phones in a third world country: El Salvador

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The Benefits and repercussions of the use of mobile phones in a third world country: El Salvador

Introduction

The widespread of the use of mobile phones in El Salvador is a very recent phenomenon, dating itself from its growth in the year 1997. Their use has increased in the past decade. Now making them an indispensable tool in business, commerce and for regular society too. From recent studies, it has been deduced that by April 2001, there were approximately three to three million and a half of mobile phones in circulation in the country. This in an equivalent of one phone for every 3 people. Two of the main companies providing the service are from Telefonica (MoviStar) and Telemovil de El Salvador.

The extensive use of this device had leaded not only in the country but also worldwide the concern and public debate about the effects on human health. The concern focuses deeply in the context of the emissions of radio frequency radiation (RF) from both the mobile phone itself and the base station that provides the signal to the device. The levels of exposure increase from the handset itself if it is held near to the head or other parts of the body, rather than exposing the whole body to the frequencies of the base station.

There are two main ways by which the health is directly jeopardized by the RF radiation. These are by thermal effects caused mainly by holding the mobile phone close to the body and non-thermal effects, which are caused by both the phone itself and the base stations that emits the signal. Moreover there are other reasons that might affect the general population, like there is strong evidence relating the use of mobile phones whilst driving increases the probability of a car accident. On the other hand people who live near to the base stations, or school near, might be more affected by the RF radiation. As the exposure generally is increased as the subject is closer to the source of emission of this radiation.

Individual mobile phones operate by communicating with fixed installations called base stations. These have a limited range. The mobile phone operators or the service providers have to establish national base stations networks in order to have a wide coverage, like Telemovil (see figure 1.1).

It takes many years to establish a network similar to the one of Telemovil. But none of the mobile phone companies in the country provide a complete coverage.

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Base stations communicate and transmit the signal in a designed area or ‘cell’. There are three types of cells: macrocells, microcells and picocells, these are depending upon the size and the power output of the antenna of the base station.

Macrocells provide the main structure for the base station network.  It has power outputs of tens of watts and has the ability to communicate within a range of 35 kilometres. Microcells are used to improve the main network, especially where the amount of calls are relatively high. They are placed in airports, and near shopping malls. And moreover these are ...

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