Mobile Phones are indeed very dangerous

Rating: is there a solution?

by Bena Roberts

Last night I want out some people from Microsoft, T-Online and Alcatel. By chance on the way to the Cannstadt beer event in Stuttgart I needed to catch a taxi from the Hotel . Another man was already waiting for a taxi so I went up to him and his group and asked (in my best German) if I could share a taxi and said “that we must think of the environment”.

There were roars of laughter from the group and the man kindly replied “yes, I may”. I wondered why everyone was laughing and then everything became clear. I was talking to Dr. Axel Friedrich Senior Environmental Minister at the Federal Environmental Agency Germany.

I took the time in the taxi to interview Dr. Friedrich about mobile phones, masts and the environment. What I heard shouldn’t have been a surprise – but it was. He said he commended mobile phone manufacturers as at least they are trying to save the environment by adding stand-by functionality to devices and not making Bluetooth an “always on” functionality.

Could Bluetooth hurt the environment? Apparently it can and quite seriously. Wifi on phones and making calls all impact the environment and mobile phones should be turned off and recycled as much as possible.
I then though rapidly about the idle screen? On the one hand, I am a huge fan of the Idle Screen and on the other – the ability to transmit ads via the idle screen and broadcast functionality as used by Celltick – can’t be good for the environment?

Indeed. Broadcasting to mobile is dangerous and use of the active idle screen will stop the “good” part of stand-by technology.

But does anyone care? Who will take the lead? Is there something that should limit the amount of broadcasts pushed to mobile devices or should transmissions only be broadcast at certain times of the day not at all times? Can mobile operators go Green or should manufacturers take the initiative.
I am not sure what the answer is – but I have turned by Bluetooth off. If anyone knows of any steps anyone is taking to stop environmental damage by the use of mobile phones – please let us know.

Related News:

1. Blue Telephony, and CPS Group Italia collaborate on a new range of environmentally aware mobile phones based on the OpenSpime technology platform
2. Nokia Mobile Search on S40 and S60 devices
3. Mobile Posse receives USD 10 million in VC cash
4. Texting with an iPhone is dangerous
5. Celltick users hit 12 million users in Thailand