I am hopeing someone will be able to give me some help with a bit of technical advice. I live in a tower block in central london. The roof of my building is under lease to Orange who have been using it as a Base Station Controller (BSC). This apparently has been going on for 13 years. I only became aware of this when the amount of dishes began to grow over the last few years (20+) and could be clearly seen from the ground. I have since become aware of the health issues related to this form of technology and am in the process of trying to start a campaign to get this BSC removed. It took me over a year to get Orange to tell me whats on the roof. Which basically involved giving me measurements of dishes, hardly technical stuff!. But the point which they made which I could do with some advice on is the fact that they state it is not a Base Station at all but a BSC which "uses narrow band, directional, microwave links to integrate remote sites into the wider Orange network. Since microwave links are not required to provide network coverage to any area, their power levels are extremely low, so much so that no real public health concerns have been raised about them."

Does this mean my specific base station (BSC) is not potentially harmful? I went to OFCOM's Sitefinder where Base stations are listed and its not there. So I rang OFCOM and they iniatially said they had never heard of a BSC and registration of a site by and mobile company was voluntary. I asked how they could check that Operators were keeping within emission guidelines if they did'nt know where they were and was told they did not check! I then explained exactly what the BSC was supposed to do (as Above) and was then told it should be licensed and is dealt with by the "people upstairs" I asked who they were but she would not tell me. Instead she said I must send an email requesting information and that I could not be put through to any one else.

All of which seems a bit 'cloak and dagger'. So if any out there can tell if thet know anything about BSC's I would me most grateful. I find myself in a position where I want to do a campaign to have this Base Station removed but if I go to my local councillors argueing that I want it removed I really need to know a bit about what it is and if it is a potential danger.

Thank you

Sylvie.