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Interesting Kuwait

Illegal telecom transceivers

A reader called Ahmad emailed me some pictures showing how his neighbor installed telecom transceivers on his roof (above) and then covered them up to look like tacky decorations (below). I’ve seen telecom towers made to look like gigantic palm trees but never seen something like this before.

The reader already emailed the baladieh on two different occasions but nothing has happened yet. According to the reader:

These are very close to the other houses including my house and it is hazardous to the health. The house owner actually doesn’t live in this house but he is renting the whole house for different families.

I’m curious to see how this issue gets solved, hopefully Ahmad will keep us posted on the outcome of his complaints.

47 replies on “Illegal telecom transceivers”

Shouldn’t the cell phone companies be installing this stuff. Why would he install it on his own?
I’m curious to know what hes upto.

@ mark: no its not illegal! they come and put them on top of buildings after they pay the building owner some money!

@ Lloyd: i agree… what is he doing with them!! im really curious!

manabry: Thats not true for all areas. In salwa for example the only places they are allowed to put towers is over CO-OPs. They aren’t allowed to put them on top of houses.

Actually I’m talking about the telecom antennas (3 No.) and one microwave direct communication dish which they transmit and receive signals in microwave region at high power to sent the signals as far as technically possible. That’s why these must not be installed near the people and that’s why it illegal every where not just Kuwait.

The house owner doesn’t have any purpose of installing them, he might have a contract with one of the telecom companies and they did the installations. I think (but not sure) it is from the new company (you know it don’t you?), because users suffer from somewhat poor signals.

I think the giant antenna belongs to a radio hobbyist, and it is ok to install it if you have a permit from MOC and it uses a much lower freq. signal probably in VHF or UHF region with low power and most importantly not continuous.

I’m waiting for an action form the Baladia before I go further….

he’s complaining to the wrong people

state security – big complex in south surra – or the ‘jail of many slaps’ near the dasman roundabout – is where he should go
could be a safe house for irani agents

email the emiri diwan and also take photos of all cars around the building

THEN you’ll see action

The second picture looks like a VHF/UHF antenna used for HAM radios. Every country will require you to have a license to operate one of those…but it is possible to obtain one with ease in Kuwait. The next factor is the health factor. It is only dangerous to human health if it exceeds 50Mhz and in most cases it does not but that does not mean some cannot crank up the power on it…its only a knob’s turn away. The first one does look like microwave line-of-sight…

Guys no need to imagine strange things. These are telecom antennas. I did some comparisons with the other telecom towers and these are just a copy of them. The second proof is that small microwave disc which is aligned to nothing but the telecom towers in the back yard near the main electric power substation and the CO-OP.
I did a quick research and found that is called a repeater or booster for areas with weak signals.

I went for the right people, the baladia and second is MOC. If they are asleep then I should take a different route.

@ 3bod: It is not in Bayan.

I think it depends on the area if this is legal or not. I know in Salwa this would be illegal but I’ve driven by areas in which I’ve noticed the fake palm tree sticking out between residential houses.

I think the telecom company who did this job, the minaret camouflage, did really a good job. Wireless telecommunications is becoming a necessity nowdays, it is a matter how to make it look like; neat and friendly. Health hazards, are you kidding me; cell phone in your ears is more hazardeous.

Hey..Im just curious?..I mean, I just saw the same recently which through the posts I believe is a telecom transceiver .But just right beside it, there is another tower open to everyone’s view and radiating as well..Isn’t anyone worried about that???..Atleast this one is covered and we don’t have to worry much as compared to the other one, right??..And this raditation stuff just makes me laugh..For ages, people have been trying to prove this but always have been in vain..No proof yet folks..And as Michou says, talking on your phone with the antenna just beside your brains is more harmful..

Guys, ya this is near my home, same location mention in the comments and right beside it there is normal telecom antenna & MW is showing, no one is talking about it!!! if both won’t be there we can’t use phone or internet!!! i think we should ask them to cover the other one to keep the area look cool, but don’t tell me radiation cause i will tell you stop using your mobile and by da way its really look pretty cool

..talking about signals – I use the Zain e-GO.. I live in Riggae and my connection keeps getting disconnected frequently (atleast twice/thrice in an hour).. is that normal?

Well generally speaking, radio freq.s are not harmful up to two points where the freq goes into the microwave band and can effect many things not just humans. The second is the radiation power, your cell phone radiate less than 5 watts in worst cases (Chinese phones) and usually in milliwatts. The telecom towers radiate those signals in hundreds of watts that’s 10 to 40 times the power from your mobile.

If read some communications standards you will get how far those towers should be.

If these are illegal, then my entire block is one giant violation.

Second, these could be used for long range radio (two-way) or TV (its all microwaves anyway). You need a license from MOC to operate these radios but people do them all over the world, and those need such antennae.

Third, if you call and complain at Zain/Viva/Wataniya and you know the right people, they can come and install these booster cell sites on your property.

So, I suspect there may be more to this.

if this stuff is that dangerous than why it is allowed to put the same on different buildings of Hawally, Salmiya, Khaitan, Jaleeb and so on. People are living there as well, or they are not considered as humans. What i heard is that there are some standards defined by MOH kuwait. Remaining who cares, Radio, TV. Satellite Dish Receivers, MOC Towers, Government Wireless Frequencies, Blue Tooth, Different Remote Controls of TV, Dish, DVD and different toys, combine them all, we are living in a net of rays. how can we avoid them all.

TV and Radio use lower freq.s and the antenna should be 1/4 of the wave length, the antennas should be longer than these. TV uses horizontal polarization antenna and these are clearly vertical these can’t be radio or TV antenna.

Salam
Could you please email me the address or locations on google map of the buildings that installed such antenna’s .
Regards

Hey! this BLDG where i live it’s salwa blk 11 🙂 now i know all that digging all night WTF! if it’s microwave receiver or booster or whatever still suffering from Viva internet it’s very bad, i bought ego-zain wich i have no problem regarding viva sim i have low coverage also,

any way thanx now i know what these towers for. i am going up to look at it 😀 now

Ok still there is no response from baladia. I’m currently away from home, I will be home inshalla on 14 OCT and will continue with my claim.

Ahmed, i am VIVA customer and i will complain also to Baladiya about zain and wataniya and it will ended in keeping all towers or removing all towers but make sure that no one will remove viva towers and keep zain and wataniya so i dont know what do you want, you want salwa to b da place whre we cant use mobile or internet!!!! just think man

@ the spy, we people in salwa using viva is facing a problem because people like ahmed who is working for zain or wataniya and making drama, even his picture is not fair right next to this building which is my building thre is 1 tower 18m height for zain he try to hide it in his picture

to Mark, i wana email u the picture that showing the 2 towers together which ahmed try to hide it and show only viva

i dnt understand u guys rly i bought some share in viva my family did its a kuwaity company and the owner is us the kuwaity people, how come we r supporting zain (private), wataniya (qatar) and nt supporting our money…..lolll wht a joke

no he mention to the new operator whos customer is suffering from bad coverage, here i copy below his words
The house owner doesn’t have any purpose of installing them, he might have a contract with one of the telecom companies and they did the installations. I think (but not sure) it is from the new company (you know it don’t you?), because users suffer from somewhat poor signals.

even the comment when i read it again its like un ethical or thre is smthng behind it…loll it is from the new company(he can mention VIVA) then you know it don’t you? (what is the meaning if you know it just say, because users suffer from somewhat poor signal (how do you know this, is it based on your experience)

@Mark, don’t tell me he don’t care cause he hide the picture of the tower just on the next building, i can forward you the picture if you want,

If you read what I posted there is no mention of a new operator or which operator. The post is about telecommunication towers in residential areas.

I don’t know why you think that i’m against the new telecom company, I thought that the new company might have problems and want to solve it in any way. It might be for the other two companies, I don’t know but I think logically. As for not mentioning the names, I don’t want to advertise or distort any company, when you grow up and work with large companies, contractors and vendors you’ll know what I mean.

You think I’m hiding something? I took my camera with me and drove around to find a similar antennas but didn’t find anything similar, If I missed something why don’t you send Mark the photos which I can make it a second claim or it might be legal since it is repeated on other houses. we need to know what’s going on.

Also I don’t care who owns the company shares, I care about our health and safety, we have children and pregnant women. clear?

yes now Ahmed, its fine and i am 100% with you

its just your comment was not clear but now its fine, so we are talking about illegal telecom towers in residence area, this is fine

but i want to ask something, if all of them remove the towers, it will be like the 18th century no mobile no internet, how can we live like this

about the picture its with me cause its on my building but i really don’t know how to email it.

i check with friends working in telecom and with some one i know he is a doctor, he said its only problem if you are facing the microwave directly but if it is on top of your building no problem because once signal go out of antenna its not concentrated, 1 antenna might be covering more than 10 streets so it become like the mobile, the only problem is if you are directly facing it and distance less than 6m

I did not say that all telecom towers are illegal, only the ones on residential buildings and very close to the people.

When you talk about the microwaves you’ll see different ideas. it is a complicated thing, like smoking some people have heart dieses because of nothing and some smoke and still healthy, but that doesn’t mean smoking is good!

Doctors are from different schools and different believes and ideas, it is not mathematical science, that’s why you can’t speak to one doctor and stop asking. You see that all advanced countries forbid the telecom towers near the people because theoretically it can harm humans, plants and animals. I’m currently visiting some of the most advanced cities in the world for projects business and I have never see any telecom tower close to the people, they all up high on 90m towers. So 6 meters or at least 15 meters (like france I think) is not a measure because it depends on the power, frequency and the duty.

I have to check what is the Kuwaiti law says about it.

Dear all,

Finally! Today the telecom towers has been removed completely after many attempts with baladia. It has been more than 5 months but anyways my claim was right since it is illegal to operate those tower in privet houses.

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