The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has just released a notice appealing public not to believe in baseless accusations against the 5G technology. Rumours are that 5G has aggravated the COVID-19 spread in India. Multiple messages conveying the same information are making rounds online.
The public is advised not to pay heed to the rumour. COAI said that even the World Health Organisation (WHO) has made it clear that there is no correlation between the COVID-19 virus and the 5G technology. India doesn’t even have live 5G networks, so there is no way 5G can be the reason behind the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Multiple Nations Already Have Live 5G Networks
Leaving India, there are multiple nations that are well on their path to recovery and have live 5G networks. The fake news regarding the 5G and COVID-19 surge came out when the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) gave its permission to the telecom service providers (TSPs) for conducting 5G trials.
Note that the government gave permission to conduct live 5G trials only 3 days back. During the 3 day period, the TSPs didn’t install any 5G tower or deploy 5G networks in any part of the country. This means that 5G can’t be the reason behind the aggravation of the pandemic. There is still little time for the telcos to start with the 5G trials.
If you come across such fake news, please educate the user who sent you the message and don’t pass it on to any other group or person.
Director-General of COAI, Dr SP Kocchar, said that telecom services are the lifeline of the country at times such as this. He assured that there is no adverse effect on the health of a person because of 5G, nor does it boost the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
With the rise in technology, it has become very easy to spread misinformation. People are advised to be wary of such messages and not believe blindly in anything they receive online. The claims made against 5G are completely baseless, and the public is requested to share the same information with their loved ones. Note that the commercial deployment of 5G is not expected in 2021 at least.
