“Expansion harzt” – GLP National Councilor Katja Christ wants no more blind spots in Switzerland

Katja Christ herself lives near a dead spot. The GLP country councilor from Riehen in the canton of Basel-City therefore knows what the consequences of a blind spot can be.

“We had an incident where an emergency call initially didn’t work because of the radio dead zone. Something like this should not happen again,” Christ tells Watson.

Another example is the companies in Riehen, who had to tell customers: pay cash only, as card transfers were not possible due to the radio dead zone.

All this happened only because an old antenna was not replaced. “For years it was known that the antenna would be dismantled, but a new location was not found,” says Christ. The GLP politician now wants to take action against this, for which she submitted a postulate on Thursday.

A building permit is required for minor changes

“The problem is that the government is not obliged to find a suitable location. If the antenna does not find space with private companies, the projects simply come to a standstill,” criticizes Christ.

The “network development and expansion harze” continues: in the past 12 months, the number of pending construction applications has risen to 3244. “These are not only new antennas, but also trivial changes such as antenna angle changes that require completely new building permits,” says the GLP National Councillor. For this reason, “87.2 percent of existing systems across Switzerland” could not be upgraded to 5G.

In her postulate, Christ demands a report from the Federal Council on how security of supply can be guaranteed and to what extent the public sector can be obliged to look for solutions.

“Some communities don’t even want antennas on their buildings. But if there is a threat of a dead zone, they must be obliged to find a place,” explains Christ. The GLP politician has collected signatures from all parties in parliament for her request. The umbrella organization Economiesuisse also supports the demands.