Mobile telephony relay antennas in Lille (illustration). – M.Libert / 20 Minutes
- Last October, the city of Lille adopted a moratorium on the installation of 5G antennas on its territory.
- Despite this, the various operators have largely started to install their equipment.
- There are already more than a hundred 5G relay antennas installed, although many are not yet in service.
Moratorium (adjective): which grants a delay. Last October, the Lille city council voted for a moratorium on the installation of 5G relay antennas on the municipal territory. Five months later, is the city still virgin of this latest generation mobile telephone network? Well no, far from it.
The motion, voted in early October 2020 by elected officials in Lille, proposed “to suspend on its territory any authorization to install or light ” test ” antennas linked to 5G technology”. This text was expected to remain in force “until the publication of the expected report from ANSES (National Health Security Agency) in 2021”. Contacted by 20 minutes, the town hall of Lille confirmed that “this motion is still relevant”. Logical since the famous ANSES report has still not been released. The Agency has also explained that its scientific experts will work on the issue “by the end of 2021”.
Already a hundred branches installed in Lille
If the Lille motion has the merit of existing and legitimately questioning public health issues related to the deployment of 5G, in any case it is not binding on operators. Reluctant to use this technology too, the mayor of Villeneuve d’Ascq, Gérard Caudron recognizes that “mayors cannot, neither under their general police powers nor on the basis of the precautionary principle, prohibit the deployment and activation of 5G ”.
And that, the operators understood it well. You just have to go to the site of the National Frequency Agency (ANFR), the authority which authorizes the establishment of 5G sites, to see that Lille is already well covered by the 4 operators with around a hundred antennas in all. Free, which has received authorization to install around forty antennas, is in the best position.
So of course, not all operators have yet activated 5G in Lille. Although Free is well established, its online mapping shows no coverage of the city. The same goes for SFR. Bouygues has a small 5G block on the rue des Postes side. Orange, in terms of commissioning, seems the most advanced operator. According to the Nperf.com site, Orange covers numerous axes and sites in Lille with 5G, in particular the two stations. But Lille is already surrounded, many neighboring municipalities are already equipped with antennas in operation whose waves do not stop at the borders of the city.