Abstract
This paper reports the electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure levels from fifth generation (5G) services. Three mobile operators in South Korea launched the world’s first 5G New Radio networks using the 3.5 GHz band in April 2019. The transmitted power of the uplink slots and the synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) from user equipment (UE) were measured in Seoul. The power samples, averaged over a 1-s duration, were obtained for a traffic period of approximately 270 h from October 2019 to early February 2020 using the file transfer protocol while driving along the side streets in residential areas of Seoul. The measurement results show that the time-average level when exposed to a beam sweep of the base stations was less than $5~\mu \text{W} / \text{m}^{2}$ . However, the UE transmitted power level approached the maximum for a considerable period of the total measurement time owing to the extremely low SS-RSRP level of the base stations.
Highlights
Even before the start of the fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) service, a significant debate had generated regarding the health effects on the human body
The number of 1-s averaged synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) values was between approximately 9 × 105 and 1 × 106
Because 2G to 5G technologies coexist in the current mobile communication environment, an evaluation of the total electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure owing to mobile communication technology services in a real environment should be based on the results of a large-scale survey
Summary
Even before the start of the fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) service, a significant debate had generated regarding the health effects on the human body. To the best of our knowledge there have been no reports on the actual exposure levels in 5G NR networks to date. South Korea commercialized the world’s first 5G NR service in early 2019, and in the second half of the same year, the level of exposure was measured in Seoul, providing a scientific basis for dispelling public concerns despite the early stages of service. Three mobile operators in South Korea launched 5G NR networks in the 3.5 GHz band in April 2019. Two mobile operators were allocated the 100 MHz band, and the other operator was allocated 80 MHz. As of April 2020, the number of 5G subscribers in South Korea had reached nearly 6 million. The total number of 5G base stations installed is approximately 115,000, which is still quite small compared to the number of LTE base stations
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