Development of the 5G network: The specter of the new generation of mobile telephony is spreading through Serbia

The CEO of Telekom Srbija Vladimir Lučić recently stated that at the beginning of next year at the latest 5G mobile network should have worked in Serbia.

“The most modern 5G network will arrive in Serbia very soon, at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2025, as soon as the tender for the additional frequency range is announced. We are already installing base stations on a large scale, which are completely ready for 5G, and as soon as we get the frequency, we will release it first in the biggest cities, and then in the rest of the country,” Lučić told RTS.

The head of Telekom pointed out that the existing mobile networks in Serbia are of extremely high quality, “even better than some 5G in Europe”.

“This network is coming to Serbia at the right time, because advanced services based on it are only now being developed around the world.” It is important to know that 5G is not only for the user to ‘stream’ contents from the Internet faster. On the contrary, advanced application in a wide range of activities is key. From the construction of virtual networks and automation of processes in large economic systems, through traffic, such as automatic vehicle control, which is being prepared for Expo 2027 in our country, to the most modern services in healthcare and applications in science and education,” explained Vladimir Lučić.

Photo: Unsplash / Shiwa

SBB’s request for a 5G network has been in someone’s drawer for three years

Serbia has been waiting for years for the introduction of 5G technology, which would certainly improve the quality of services and reduce their price, while debates about the 6G network are already underway in Europe.

Miloš Stojković, lawyer and expert consultant for 5G regulatory issues, told the portal “Nova.rs” that SBB approached the competent ministry, then the Ministry of Trade and Telecommunications and RATEL, in February 2021 with a request to initiate the procedure for allocating frequencies suitable for 5G.

Along with the request, SBB submitted an expert study that pointed out the advantages of a new mobile operator entering the market and adequate auction models in accordance with the best European practice.

This process has been going on for a full three years and will probably continue, he writes Nova.rs.

Stojković explains that RATEL conducted public consultations with interested parties in the period from May to September 2021 and in October of that year passed the Decision on the fulfillment of the conditions for frequency allocation.

“After that, the competent ministry had to pass a rulebook that would regulate the basic conditions for participation in the auction.” Even after three years, the Ministry did not pass that regulation. The reasons they presented were of the most diverse nature, among other things, they stated that a new law must be passed, although the procedure prescribed by the old and new law is essentially the same,” Stojković points out.

According to him, the Ministry announced in September that the rulebook would soon be put up for public debate, but to date it has neither started the debate nor adopted the rulebook. Of course, without any explanation or reasoning why it is still late.

“Since the ministry passed the rulebook, it takes several months to implement and prepare the auction itself, so we are practically at the very beginning of the procedure. It is not bad to recall the statements of the minister at the time, who pointed out that Serbia ‘enough for 3 operators’, which were quite problematic,” notes Stojković.

Of course, all this has very specific consequences for the consumers themselves.

“The experience of developed European countries shows that the entry of a new operator affects the activation of market mechanisms, promotes market competition and leads to lower prices and better service quality.” In addition, the state itself receives income both directly and indirectly from the auction, so there are practically no downsides to the entry of new operators, on the contrary,” concluded Stojković.

Photo: Pexels / Z z

What exactly is 5G?

As “Vreme” previously wrote, it is about the fifth generation of mobile telephony. Each previous one lasted approximately ten years, and now it’s time for the next one. The current infrastructure, which we sometimes label as 4G, sometimes as LTE, sometimes as something else, is rapidly being replaced by a new, more modern one. What does this “modernity” bring us?

First of all, significantly higher data transfer speeds on all mobile devices, speeds that will be comparable to those currently offered by cable television or fixed telephony operators. Data transfer will be cheaper and cheaper, music and movies more and more available, communication between people will never be faster and more meaningful.

All the devices we use will become “smart”: the washing machine will talk to the dryer, the dryer to the iron, the iron to the ironing board, the ironing board to the housewife while the housewife is “binging” the Babylon Berlin series on the tablet. New phones will also appear, but they will be expensive because you will simply have to have them in order not to be seen in society. It’s progress, meeting needs that didn’t even exist until yesterday.

Someone noticed that the accelerated modernization of the mobile network coincided with the coronavirus pandemic. When the infection started to spread, those who believe that nothing happens by chance in the world came on the scene. Of all the possible explanations, the self-proclaimed “experts” eager for publicity chose the one that best suits our tabloid reality full of sensational headlines and “discoveries” – the epidemic started in Wuhan, Wuhan is the first city to put the 5G network into operation. Need more proof that 5G waves caused the pandemic?

Conspiracy theories

It is true that the paranoia started even before the pandemic. In 2019, the Russian network “RT America” ​​(otherwise accused of meddling in the US presidential election) broadcast a report entitled “Dangerous Experiment on Humanity”, claiming that 5G technology causes brain tumors, infertility, sterility, heart problems and autism. That show was followed by six more “episodes” on the same topic, the last one about children exposed to 5G radiation allegedly experiencing spontaneous nosebleeds and learning problems. When the epidemic broke out, the already formulated conspiracy theory fell on fertile ground.

Conspiracy theorists are usually easy to recognize. It is often a doctor who likes to explain physical phenomena or a physicist who “knows everything” about the structure of viruses. Sometimes it is a priest who was given a third eye by God to see the hidden reality. Sometimes it is a journalist who collected “irrefutable truths” from such a physicist, doctor and priest, and mixed them all into a newspaper text. Sometimes it’s a famous athlete or actor who thinks his IQ is rising along with his bank account balance. There is often his better half, usually a housewife, an expert on yoga, artichokes and high life, ready to share his hilarious antics with millions of followers on social networks. Sometimes it’s a “YouTube influencer” (the name for an influential person who before YouTube was nobody and nothing, in most cases “cyber-jiber”). What they all have in common is that they have the cheeky audacity to talk about things they least understand and for which they have never been educated.

5G conspiracy theorists today go so far as to question the very biological nature of the virus. According to them, the virus is just a poison that poisoned cells are trying to expel from themselves. The virus is a consequence, not the cause of the disease. Man is a being governed by electrical impulses, each electrocardiogram or encephalogram is actually a recording of the electrical currents that control our vital functions. Illness occurs when these natural electrical currents in our organism are disturbed by external influences, which we have not encountered so far. The real cause of the disease is, in fact, insane technological development that has a harmful effect on health and whose negative consequences nobody deals with.

Fear of 5G in Serbia

In February, the Beta agency published the news that residents of a street in Stara Pazova protested the installation of a 5G antenna in their neighborhood.. They asked the municipality to regulate the installation of this equipment, to move it away from houses because, they say, referring to information from the World Health Organization, there is still not enough information to indicate that the radiation of the 5G base station is safe.

“When surveys are conducted on the streets in Serbia with questions about the 5G network, most of the answers come down to the words “harmful”, “carcinogenic” and “bad for humans”. When asked why – because that’s what people say.

This network has long been one of the most common topics on disinformation platforms. Conspiracy theorists simply adore her. In some inexplicable way, it became a kind of symbol of “Western colonialism”, “chipping”, “controlling people”, “radiation” and other accompanying content.

Spreading disinformation

What can indicate here that the 5G network is dangerous? The short answer is – nothing. So why do people believe it?

Misinformation about the 5G network mainly circulates on obscure portals and social networks, mostly on Telegram. Therefore, it is necessary to map the dominant narratives, key actors and channels for disseminating disinformation, determine whether there are campaigns, but also the ideological background of the false narrative.

When you start mapping the breeding grounds of misinformation and unverified “studies” about the 5G network in Serbia, you quickly identify the prevailing narratives. Disinformation dominates that due to the expansion of the 5G network, there has been an increase in people suffering from “microwave radiation”. The network is claimed to cause “extreme neurological damage” and narratives are spreading that “5G is a weapon system designed for global depopulation”, citing various pseudo-experts.

Of course, there is also talk of “magnetization” which is allegedly spread by radio waves, and which has long been associated with vaccines against the coronavirus.

Photo: Tara Radovanović/Tanjug

Nurseries – Dr. Branimir Nestorović

In a research in February of this year, “Vreme” wrote about the identification of several key actors that channel this content here, and the dominant platforms are Telegram and YouTube. The Zero Point portal, whose Telegram channel has almost 22.000 members, is one of the biggest propagators of conspiracy theories about the 5G network. Behind the portal stands Mario Bojić, the author of the “Mario Zna” podcast, which is followed by about 115.000 people on YouTube. This portal and podcast are generators not only of false information and unverified studies about 5G networks, but also about the coronavirus in general, migrants, the new world order, the western conspiracy, etc.

Branimir Nestorović, the leader of the electoral coalition “We – the voice of the people”, is happy to see the source of these channels. As a guest in the aforementioned podcast, he spoke about “setting up 5G networks” and “humanity’s greatest experiment”.

The Telegram group “Antiglobalists” is also very active in “warning” about the harmfulness of the 5G network. She is close to the association of citizens “Doctors and parents for science and ethics” who became known for treating the corona virus through Viber groups, opposed to immunization and calling for the use of untested drugs. Almost 3000 members can discuss different conspiracy theories every day.

There is also the SrbinInfo portal, the Telegram group “Discussion Migrants”, which was created as an extension of the People’s Patrol, where members can participate in the discussion, as well as the “New Age of Old Warriors” group, which also spreads misinformation on this topic. There are a number of YouTube channels where guests talk about anything and everything, including the alleged harm of the 5G network. Among them is BalkanInfo. Some shows were watched by hundreds of thousands of people.

The modus operandi is largely similar. Authors, or readers involved in the discussion, refer to various studies that support their theories. As a rule, these are unreliable sources, the findings can be distorted and misinterpreted, or the studies and foreign experts they cite do not exist at all.

Social network analysis tools show a high level of interaction between groups and channels that share similar content. That’s how disinformation spreads massively, even on platforms that aren’t necessarily obsessed with conspiracy theories.

However, we cannot talk about organized campaigns to spread misinformation about 5G networks in Serbia, but they are created and transmitted arbitrarily, out of the conviction of terrorist conspiracies, mostly ideologically right-oriented.

At the end of the day, the results of the December and June elections in our country show that this phenomenon long ago outgrew the pub discussion of a handful of like-minded people and took on serious proportions.