Australians can now check the levels of electromagnetic energy (EME) being emitted from a selection of mobile base stations in Victoria and New South Wales, with the ACMA’s new online EME Checker. The new tool uses data from measurements completed by the ACMA at these base stations during 2021 and 2022.
EME is all around us and is part of our natural environment. It is emitted by sources like the sun, the earth, the earth’s atmosphere and even the human body.
Telecommunications infrastructure also produces EME, and all mobile phone base stations in Australia must meet Australian standards. Under these standards, the ACMA checks telcos are complying with EME exposure limits set by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).
With the new EME Checker, people can choose from a dropdown list of locations to view the average and maximum EME recorded at sites that we have measured. You can also compare data across sites and check against ARPANSA limits.
Additional locations will be added to EME Checker as we continue to measure telecommunications sites across Australia.
The ACMA has also published audits into EME compliance including measurement data taken from 129 5G-enabled base station sites across New South Wales. The results showed all measurements recorded were less than 1.2 per cent of the ARPANSA limit, and a majority of sites were under 1 per cent of the limit.
The audits also showed all telcos met their obligations under the 2020 Mobile Phone Base Station Deployment Code.
The EME Checker is live on the ACMA website and the results of the EME compliance audits have been published.