This article from BBC News relates the measures that mobile phone operators are taking to hide "visual atrocities" such as mobile phone masts. From encasing them in current structures, to creating fake chimneys, flagpoles, weathervanes, and even fake trees, businesses are working in concert with city governments to place technology in cities invisibly.

What I find of interest here is the relationship between business and government, in which businesses are allowed to place technology in exchange for the business refurbishing whatever structure the technology will be hidden in. Statues are being regilded, clock mechanisms rebuilt, but should every public monument also be a commercial one?

All the work, of course, is being done for our benefit so we don't need to see such "architectural acne." But are there safety issues here, since disguised antennas can not be avoided by individuals? And it just seems convenient for mobile phone companies that people don't know they're being exposed to increased levels of radiation.