WiMAX masts pose no health risk, Intel says

INTEL'S MOBILITY guru Sean Maloney said that masts beaming WiMAX signals across the metropolis do not pose any risk to health.

But Intel takes the matter seriously, said Maloney, and continues to closely watch research on the effect of radio emissions.

The successful implementation of WiMAX would require masts to be set up as relay stations, much as cellular masts are pretty much omnipresent, Maloney said yesterday. But the effects of such transmissions were unlikely to have much effect on humanoids within range. He said that since concerns were first raised about cellular transmissions, not one case of them having an effect on human tissue had been proven.

WiMAX - or wireless DSL as the first implementation will be called - will likely be rolled out worldwide over the next few years, with several hundred companies participating in the study. Intel will make money out of selling silicon, said Maloney. That's not just the silicon that will be in boxes used to transmit the signals, but through more sales of notebooks able to use WiMAX, he said.

Currently, the problem is that if you have a notebook there are virtual deserts even in large cities such as London, unless you hop around from pub to pub, or from coffee bar to coffee bar, or from burger joint to burger joint.

Wireless DSL is also expected to bring broadband to rural areas, and we'd suggest that they should be incorporated in a network of aesthetically designed windmills across the country. Disguising the masts as fake trees fools no-one, not even rock pigeons. µ