Today, April 29th, The new electromagnetic emission limits for cellular telephone networks come into force: it rises to 15 V/m. This will allow operators to strengthen their networks and “amplify the adoption of 5G”, according to what the official note from MIMIT (Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy) published last week says.
Work at the legislative level for this increase has been underway for some time: it is part of the so-called Competition decree-law, which was definitively approved on 30 December, becoming law 214/2023. It is the same one that provides, among other things, the end of so-called “operator attack” offersin which operators promise particular conditions and advantages based on the operator the potential subscriber comes from.
Italy has historically had very low electromagnetic emissions limits compared to other countries, including European ones: in 2003, 6 V/m were approved and from there we never moved again. For reference, the international commission that was established to study this topic (the ICNIRP, or International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) has determined that it is safe to go up to 61 V/m, ten times that.
The implications of this innovation are extremely significant for the quality of our cellular networks: if repeaters can transmit at greater intensity they are able to cover a greater area and/or guarantee higher connection speeds. As we have already observed on several occasions, even in recent times, 5G in Italy is still not widespread, and even where it is available the performance leap compared to a good 4G network is not too perceptible.