This Recommendation considers the protection of structures in the neighbourhood of telecommunication towers (including masts and poles) against damage and injury derived from direct lightning flashes to the towers. These protection measures intend to reduce the possible risk derived from the erection of towers@ but not to improve the overall lightning protection for every surrounding structure. The systemic protection for these structures should refer to the IEC 62305-x series. This Recommendation only considers towers whose heights are less than 100 m from ground level. Towers higher than 100 m or those situated on mountain ridges or high hills are not considered in this Recommendation. The lightning protection of telecommunication sites attached to the tower@ such as a radio base station (RBS) and a dedicated telecommunication building@ is not included in this Recommendation. To this aim@ the user should refer to the corresponding Recommendations@ such as [b-ITU-T K.27]@ [b-ITU-T K.35]@ [b-ITU-T K.56] and [b-ITU-T K.97]. The lightning protection of service lines@ such as power lines and telecommunication lines@ is not included in this Recommendation. The information about telecommunication lines is given in [b-ITU-T K.46] and [b-ITU-T K.47].