Cellular carriers to bear 80% of payment for lost property value - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Thu., December 06, 2007 Kislev 26, 5768

Israel Time: 02:18 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Rosner's Domain

Diplomacy

Defense

Jewish World

Opinion

National

Print Edition

Advertising

Books

Arts & Leisure

Business

Real Estate

Easy Start

Travel

Week's End

Anglo File

Hanukkah

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

Cellular carriers to bear 80% of payment for lost property value

By Eran Gabay

Tags: Israel

It took years of wrangling, but now it's all but final: Israel's cellular providers will have to bear 80 percent of the compensation to homeowners for lost property value because of proximity to a cellular antenna.

Two years after the law regulating non-ionizing radiation finally passed through the Knesset, the National Council for Planning and Building has gotten around to drawing up the principles of a national master plan for cellular transponders (antennas).

The master plan addresses various issues of determining locations for cellular antennas, and another, no less important one: compensation. The cellular service providers will be required to reimburse homeowners for loss of property value because of the proximity to cellular antennas. The issue is not a petty one: studies have found that housing prices by antennas can be as much as 30 percent lower than prices of comparable housing.

	Advertisement

Israel has four cellular companies: Partner (Orange), Cellcom, Pelephone and MIRS.

While the cellular companies will evidently have to bear 80 percent of any indemnification due to affected homeowners, the other 20 percent is to be borne by the relevant local government.

The council also ruled the location of all new antenna installations must be publicized. Preference will be given to small transponders rather than large ones within population centers, in order to reduce radiation emissions.

When the council issues its final decision on the issue of reimbursement, the cellular companies may well have to make provisions for compensating homeowners in their financial statements. It is possible their credit ratings will be impaired.

Government bodies will now need to address the issues concretely, include district planning committees, the ministries of Interior, Environmental Protection and Communications and the local authorities.

The National Council for Planning and Building's position on the amount of reimbursement to be transferred by cellular companies to the local municipalities was badly delayed. One of the reasons for the procrastination was that Ram Belinkov, the Interior Ministry director general, who also serves as the chairman of the National Council for Planning and Building, disqualified himself from the deliberations on the issue in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Spokesmen for the Green party and for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) expressed their satisfaction with the decision. SPNI takes the position that costs of reimbursement for damages as a result of installing the antennas should be borne entirely by the cellular companies.

The decision to avoid installing new antennas in natural habitats, to the extent possible, came in response to pressures exerted by the green group. Priority will be given to installation on existing infrastructure poles, including electrical poles. Any installation of new antennas in open areas will require submission of plans based on a set of criteria meant to avoid incursion on open landscape.

Any issue related to the cellular market is problematic, since nearly all cellular specialists in Israel are connected, one way or another, to the cellular companies and objective experts are hard to come by.

The Forum of Cellular Companies' response to the announcement was not quite as enthusiastic as environmental and nature proponents. Describing the issue as "still open for discussion," the forum spokesman said that the cellular companies would issue their professional comments to the document. The cellular companies are of the opinion that the guiding principal should be that installation of small antennas would be allowed within cities.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Hostile environment
	Arab states reject a proposed UN environment center due to inclusion of Israel.


	Poverty report
	A study shows the number of poor asking for food has doubled in the last 5 years.




1.	Information about cellular phone company antennas near you	14:02	\|	Physicist	05/12/07

Today Online


	Bush to make first official visit to Israel in January to push talks
	Responses: 143


	Zvi Bar'el: Time has come for U.S. to pursue talks with Iran
	Responses: 100


	Rosner: Israel certain Iran is playing tricks on U.S. intelligence
	Responses: 80


	Uzi Benziman: Settlers must back voluntary evacuation bill
	Responses: 69


	Amira Hass: Land grab pushing garbage dumps into PA towns
	Responses: 75

More Headlines
02:17 Undercover IDF unit accidentally kills PA policeman in Bethlehem


01:19 Hamas: Palestinians will be freed in any Hezbollah-Israel swap


01:00 Olmert, Livni, Barak to select head of Israeli team for PA talks


22:12 Hamas calls to renew talks with Abbas amidst increased IDF attacks


01:24 Polish film recounts heroism of Poles who helped Jews in WWII


21:37 Ahmadinejad declares victory following U.S. nuclear report


02:01 EU honors Kiryat Ata school for Web-based history project


02:15 Tax board hopes benefits for green cars will spark a revolution


21:47 Palestinian Authority closes all charities in West Bank, Gaza