Introduction to this Online User's Guide - Sprint

users from radiation with making false and unsubstantiated claims.According to FTC, these defendants lacked a reasonable basis tosubstantiate their claim.10. What are wireless telephone base stations?Fixed antennas used for wireless telecommunications are referred to ascellular base stations, cell stations, PCS (“Personal CommunicationsService”) stations or telephone transmission towers. These base stationsconsist of antennas and electronic equipment. Because the antennasneed to be high in the air, they are often located on towers, poles, watertanks, or rooftops. Typical heights for freestanding base station towers are50-200 feet.Some base stations use antennas that look like poles, 10 to 15 feet inlength, that are referred to as “omni-directional” antennas. These typesof antennas are usually found in rural areas. In urban and suburbanareas, wireless providers now more commonly use panel or sectorantennas for their base stations. These antennas consist of rectangularpanels, about 1 by 4 feet in dimension. The antennas are usuallyarranged in three groups of three antennas each. One antenna in eachgroup is used to transmit signals to wireless phones, and the other twoantennas in each group are used to receive signals from wireless phones.At any base station site, the amount of RF energy produced depends onthe number of radio channels (transmitters) per antenna and the powerof each transmitter. Typically, 21 channels per antenna sector areavailable. For a typical cell site using sector antennas, each of the threetransmitting antennas could be connected to up to 21 transmitters for atotal of 63 transmitters. However, it is unlikely that all of the transmitterswould be transmitting at the same time. When omni-directionalantennas are used, a cellular base station could theoretically use up to 96transmitters, but this would be very unusual, and, once again, it isunlikely that all transmitters would be in operation simultaneously. Basestations used for PCS communications generally require fewertransmitters than those used for cellular radio transmissions, since PCScarriers usually have a higher density of base station antenna sites.Section 4: Safety Guidelines and Warranty Information198 4A: Safety