Around 90 attacks on phone masts have been reported during UK coronavirus lockdown
AROUND 90 phone masts in the UK have been attacked during lockdown, according to reports.
The incidents are believed to be due to conspiracy theories linking 5G to coronavirus.
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The shocking figures come from MobileUK, the trade association for mobile network operators (MNOs).
The MNOs has also reported that its staff and subcontractors have been subjected to intimidation and violence.
The arson and sabotage towards masts was said to surge around Easter weekend.
Some of the targeted masts were associated with 5G but many others were not.
Derbyshire Police is calling for any witnesses of a mast arson attack that happened on Sunday near Breadsall Hilltop in the UK.
The force said: “We believe the fire was started deliberately and we are investigating.”
MobileUK told Sky News that it has not taken any incidents that happened over bank holiday weekend into account.
This means the attack figure could be approaching 100.
A spokesperson for MobileUK : “Theories being spread about 5G are baseless and are not grounded in credible scientific theory.
“Mobile operators are dedicated to keeping the UK connected, and careless talk could cause untold damage.
“Continuing attacks on mobile infrastructure risks lives and at this challenging time the UK’s critical sectors must be able to focus all their efforts fighting this pandemic.”
Dozens of masts up and down the UK have been damaged by gullible criminals – including 23 EE sites.
“Mindless attacks on key workers and deliberately removing mobile signal is a reckless, harmful and dangerous thing to do,” an EE spokesperson previously told The Sun.
“And aside from the obvious risk to our colleagues could have serious consequences, from preventing a call reaching the ambulance service, to stopping families being able to talk to each other.
“These senseless crimes are creating unnecessary risk to human life, both to those that live in the areas being targeted and to the emergency services working to contain the situation.”
The conspiracy theory originated in March after a video filmed at a US health conference claimed Africa was not as affected by the disease because it is “not a 5G region”.
The theory was debunked further when the World Health Organisation confirmed there were thousands of Covid-19 cases in Africa.
“Arsonists, please think about what you are doing and stop. Imagine if it were your mum or dad, your gran or grandad in hospital,” said Vodafone’s Nick Jeffery.
“Imagine not being able to see or hear them one last time. All because you’ve swallowed a dangerous lie.
“There is absolutely no link between 5G and coronavirus.
“There is no science based evidence 5G is harmful to human health.”
What is 5G, and is it safe?
Here's what you need to know...
- Just like 4G (and 3G before that), 5G is simply a new generation of mobile internet
- Phone networks have tweaked the technology to deliver faster speeds – and have dubbed it the “5th generation”, or 5
- ll signals fall on the electromagnetic spectrum – from radio waves, to X-rays, and even visible light
- Phone networks use microwaves of a very specific frequency to deliver the internet to your iPhone or Android mobile
- This was true of 3G and 4G, and it’s still true with 5G
- In the UK, 4G signals generally sit between 800MHz and 2.6GHz on the electromagnetic spectrum
- 5G is a little higher at 3.4GHz to 3.6GHz, but that’s tiny when you consider that microwaves go up to 300GHz
- And visible light comes in at a range of around 430THz to 770THz
- That’s more than a thousand times higher than the maximum microwave – and 100,000 higher than 5G
- Dangerous radiation, like UV rays, X-rays and gamma rays are also far higher up the spectrum still
- Online conspiracy theorists are claiming that 5G can cause harm
- Early theories suggested 5G could lead to cancer – and now crackpots have linked it to coronavirus too
- But it’s simply impossible for 5G to cause any of these problems
- Radiation damages cells by breaking them apart, but 5G microwaves simply lack the power to do this
- 5G is a low-frequency radiation, far below infrared and visible light
- In fact, it’s essential that 5G is low-frequency, because higher frequencies are less useful at delivering mobile signals over large areas
- We know that this level of radiation is safe, because otherwise the visible light from our televisions would have killed us a long time ago
In other news, an iOS 13.5 Medical ID update allows some able users to share important information with the emergency services.
Facebook has teased what the future of working from home could look like if we use virtual and augmented reality.
And, Facebook’s 5G fake news poses ‘risk of immediate physical harm’, Mark Zuckerberg has warned.
What are your thoughts on 5G? Let us know in the comments…
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