Münchenstein and Riehen have regressed to the year 2001: mobile reception is now only sufficient for telephone calls – surfing is possible outdoors at best, and even then is extremely sluggish. The reason for this is that existing mobile telephony sites in the two Basel area municipalities have since been taken down and, following a volley of objections to the new, replacement sites, a building permit could not be obtained in time. A vocal minority prevailed, and now everyone is suffering the consequences. Only scant provision is currently available for the two municipalities.
A signal is available, but only from very distant sites. Which leads to a paradoxical situation: inadequate surfing combined with extremely high radiation – because the devices used by mobile telecommunications subscribers are, quite simply, cranking up their transmitting power in order to get a signal. They are compensating for the poor reception. Every smartphone, every tablet, every mobile communication unit installed in a car can do this – which is why the radiation emitted is up to 1,000 times stronger compared to a device located near a mast.
