T-Mobile to Put Cell Phone Tower in Church Steeple

A church in Medford, N.J., plans to let cell phone carrier T-Mobile install a cell phone tower in the church steeple, a move that would make $1,200 for the church every month but has some parishioners and neighbors worried.

The Burlington County Times reported that the Medford United Methodist Church, located in suburban Philadelphia, hosted a meeting this week to address concerns about the T-Mobile steeple project. Fifty people attended the meeting, most of them parents who wondered how the radiation from the T-Mobile steeple tower would affect the church’s preschoolers.

As part of the move, the church will construct a new 79-foot steeple, replacing the current 32-foot steeple. The article did not report how much of the cost T-Mobile is paying, if any.

Church spokesman Chuck Beverage said the tower in the steeple is a good move for the church because it generates revenue and it serves the community. Numerous cell phone reception deadspots -- for customers of T-Mobile and other cell phone carriers occupy the church’s vicinity, and a new tower nearby would remedy that.

"By being inside the steeple, [the T-Mobile tower] has no visual impact," Beverage told reporters.

Ken Foster, a radiation expert from the University of Pennsylvania attended the meeting and assured people that, "The levels of exposure are far below government safety limits. There would virtually be no exposure to people inside the church."