We all want to get away from the daily grind. You know, kick back, relax, and forget about what we normally do in our day jobs. However, there’s one aspect of that job we’ll never be able to escape, lest we travel to an underdeveloped country: The cell phone. You can leave yours at home, but you’ll still hear phones ringing just about everywhere. Well, The Village of New Denver in British Columbia wants to make your stay there a bit more soothing. And so the village with a population of 600 voted down an initiative to introduce mobile phone service in their town.

It’s actually a quite complicated matter. First, the town can do little to force Telus, the telecom in question, to stay away. “The telecommunications companies have a very effective lobby,” says New Denver Mayor Gary Wright. “They are the only industry that is guaranteed universal access to any location anywhere they want, in order to make their for-profit services available to anyone.”

He says that they have not abused their special status, but would still like them to stay away.

The townspeople are also concerned with studies linking cell phone radiation to brain tumors. In particular, they’re looking at a September 2007 study by teh Valhalla Committee for Environmental Health.

“That report brings together extensive findings by medical doctors and research scientists from the U.S., Sweden, Denmark, Austria, China and the U.K.,” says Richard Caniell, the chair of the Valhalla Environmental Health Committee. “It corroborates the concern about health hazards expressed by villagers here.”

And of course, there’s the peace and quiet argument.

“A cell phone-free zone would be competitive advantage in marketing the area as a tourist destination and as a place to live,” says Bill Roberts, the chair of the Slocan Valley Economic Development Commission of the Regional District of Central Kootenay.

The vote in the town was close, 117 to 110, so this likely won’t be the end of it. Telus might consider staying away for a bit, as it wouldn’t make economical sense to offer a service to people who don’t want it. But it appears there is a contingency in the town who do want cell service.

The question: Can you imagine your town if they voted down cell service?

[The Tyee]

Posted By : Stuart
Posted at : March 13th, 2008 - 10:30 am
Filed under : Canadian Wireless