Mobile phone base stations do not cause any health issues because their emissions are too weak , says a leading scientist who represents the agency responsible for setting international guidelines for phone and base station safety standards.

The mobile industry is a significant - and growing - contributor to Australia’s productivity and its economy. It is a key plank in enabling Australians to participate in the digital economy, AMTA told a House of Representatives Committee hearing in Melbourne today.

Local residents have every right to object to proposed developments of base stations, however, concerns about alleged safety issues should be based on credible scientific studies and not rely on bogus and untested claims.

ITWire’s James Riley reports this week that the national broadband network will create new opportunities for mobile data, but the main game for the mobile carriers remains access to future spectrum allocations, Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association chief executive Chris Althaus says.

For the 10 months to October this year, there were nearly 7.3 million mobile phone shipments to Australia, according to the latest industry figures.

AMTA Members and guests will have an opportunity to hear the head of the new peak consumers organisation and the retiring Ombudsman at a Members Forum in Sydney on November 26.

Since it started 10 years ago in 1999, the mobile phone industry’s recycling program has collected and recycled an estimated 4.43 million handsets and batteries.

Channel 10’s Totally Wild next Thursday, along with some of the students who participated in MobileMuster’s Old Phones New Fence Posts Schools Recycling Challenge, take a tour of the mobile phone recycling facility and see how the old mobiles they collected for recycling are turned into plastic fence posts.

Mind your mobile manners was the message on this week Channel 9’s A Current Affair, which featured AMTA’s mobile phone etiquette tips.

Drivers should learn Victoria’s new road rules or face hefty fines for breaking the law, VicRoads says.