BBC THREE - 3 Investigates: Mobile Phone Masts

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

The Schools Survey - Results (bbc.co.uk)

Read the results of the 3 Investigates survey into mobile masts near schools.

General
There are 26532 schools in the country. 2350 (8.9%) of these have at least one macro mast between 50 and 200 metres of a school.

There are 4091 mobile phone masts between 50 and 200 metres of a school.

On average 76% of schools have not been consulted about 3G masts near them.

General Consultations
We phoned schools to ask them if they had been informed about any of the masts between 50 and 200 metres of their school.

166 schools replied.

25 of these (15%) had been consulted by the phone company.

40 (24%) had been consulted by their local authority.

Consultations on 3G masts
We phoned schools to ask them if they had been informed about the 3G masts between 50 and 200 metres of their school.

There are 695 schools with 3G masts within 50-200m from the school.

365 schools, with a total of 413 masts replied.

Of the 413 masts, in 101 cases schools (24%) had been consulted by the phone company.

Of the 413 masts, in 104 cases schools (25%) had been consulted by their local authority.

Phone Companies
In a breakdown of the 3G masts in the country, the phone companies are divided thus:

Hutchison:

own 462 3G masts within 50-200m from schools.

423 different schools have Hutchison 3G masts within 50-200m.

Of the 423 schools that have Hutchison 3G masts nearby, 254 responded to the survey and 64 (25%) said they had been consulted by Hutchison.

Vodaphone:

own 171 3G masts within 50-200m from schools.

147 schools have Vodafone 3G masts within 50-200m.

Of the 147 schools that have Vodaphone 3G masts nearby, 81 responded to the survey and 16 (20%) said they had been consulted by Vodaphone.

T Mobile:

own 155 3G masts within 50-200m from schools.

129 schools have T-Mobile 3G masts within 50-200m.

Of the 129 schools that have T-Mobile 3G masts nearby, 77 responded to the survey and 19 (25%) said they had been consulted by T-Mobile.

Least and most affected areas

Top 20 worst affected areas:
City of London
Westminster
Kensington and Chelsea
Islington
Hackney
Camden
Tower Hamlets
Haringey
Southwark
Newham
Lambeth
Hammersmith and Fulham
Wandsworth
Ealing
Lewisham
Merton
Milton Keynes
Portsmouth
Brighton & Hove
Brent

Top 20 best areas:
Isles of Scilly
Rutland
Powys
Eilean Siar
Orkney Islands
Shetland Islands
Dumfries & Galloway
Devon
Ceredigion
St Helens
Angus
Wiltshire
Gwynedd
Aberdeenshire
Moray
Monmouthshire
Carmarthernshire
Torfaen
Argyll & Bute
Special schools - Ireland