Phones are worthless if there is no cell phone signal. It doesn’t matter if you have a smart 5G phone or an older handset: if you can’t receive a signal from a cell tower, your options are severely limited. While having the correct cell phone carrier can help, you must be within range of a cell phone tower to use its signal to complete tasks on your phone. Want to learn how cell phone towers work and why they’re crucial for receiving a phone signal? Here’s how it works.
A cell tower’s principal function is to ensure that antennas that receive and broadcast radio-frequency signals from cell phones and other devices are properly elevated. Cell towers are sometimes disguised as trees or flagpoles to satisfy community aesthetic concerns. Cell towers must be physically near a road for physical access, with telecommunications network connectivity and electrical power available.
Additionally, cell towers are clustered in areas with significant population density and a high probability of vast numbers of cell phone users. This helps to avoid capacity saturation, resulting in busy signals and disgruntled customers. Cell phones are programmed to detect the closest tower. The signal strength, which shows the connectivity strength between the user’s location and the nearest tower offering the service, is displayed to the user.
What is a cell tower?
A cell tower, also called a cell site, is where cellular telephone equipment and antennae are installed. Transmitters, receivers, control electronics, and backup power supplies are among the items on this list.
A tower firm or a wireless carrier wishing to extend their network coverage or capacity typically constructs cell towers. Because different places have varying amounts of cell phone towers, your cell phone service may fluctuate. For example, in remote places, carriers have built a few cell towers. To overcome cell phone service fluctuations, it is advisable to invest in the best cell phone boosters for rural areas.
A cell phone tower’s job is to make it easier for cellular phones and other wireless communication devices like phones, televisions, and radios to receive signals in a cellular network. In the US, there are currently over 307,000 cell towers. They are occasionally seen on the roofs of buildings. Cell towers are sometimes required to integrate seamlessly with the surroundings. In rural locations, they are occasionally disguised as trees in treescapes.
What are the components of a cell tower?
A complete cell tower consists of various components in addition to the physical structure:
- Physical location
- Air cooling or heating (or both, depending on the climate)
- Equipment (antennas, etc.)
- Backup electricity
- Lines of communication (generally fiber)
- Wiring
- Protection from fire
- Planning
- Documentation
The radio equipment, antenna support, and antenna are the most fundamental needs for a cell tower location (s). The particular frequencies that the equipment will broadcast on will determine which carriers will be using the site. However, because the device requires electricity, you’ll need a power system. However, because power systems can and do fail, you’ll need backup power, which usually implies a battery system.
Because all this equipment produces heat, an air conditioning system is required. Because the antennas will be located high up, lightning protection is required, which necessitates good grounding. Because the systems can catch fire, a fire protection system is required. Maintenance teams will need to visit the sites regularly; therefore, you need to provide them with AC power and lighting.
Finally, because most cell towers are built to endure a long time, there will need to be room for new technologies and reserve capacity for each component.
How cell phone towers work?
A cell phone tower’s primary function is to raise antennae that broadcast and receive radio frequency (RF) signals from cell phones and other cellular devices. The tower antennas are connected to the base station equipment by a network of wires, which are typically hidden at ground level.
Transceivers, which send and receive radio signals through antennae, are among the base station’s components: signal amplifiers, combiners, multiplexers, and a system controller. Engineers must guarantee that antennae are tall enough to cover a specific cell area. Cell phone towers are typically 50 to 200 feet tall.
When you make a phone call, electromagnetic radio waves are emitted, also known as radiofrequency or RF energy. The nearest cell phone tower antenna will receive the radio waves once they are emitted. A cell tower’s antennas can transmit and receive signals from mobile phones.
After receiving radio waves from a mobile phone, it will then relay the signals to a switching center, which is a mobile phone exchange. This enables the call to be connected to another mobile phone or a phone network.
You’ll quickly realize how a cell tower affects you once you understand how it works. Have you ever been driving and observed your signal fluctuate while on the phone? That’s because you’re switching between cell phone towers, and you’re sometimes closer to one than the other.
Typically, urban areas have the strongest signal, although rural areas of the country may experience coverage issues. Due to unevenly dispersed cell towers, hiking grounds are another region prone to signal issues. If you plan to hike in those places, you should bring a portable cell phone signal booster for hiking. The booster will offer enhanced network coverage for phone calls and data browsing.
What is the range of a cell tower?
A cell tower’s working range is defined as the range within which mobile devices may consistently connect to the tower. This range, however, is not set in stone. Several things will influence this, including:
- The antenna’s height in meters
- The signal’s frequency of use
- The transmitter’s rated power
- Weather conditions in the area of the cell tower
- The site antenna array’s directional characteristics
- Radio radiation reflected or absorbed by neighboring structures
- The subscriber’s mobile device’s rated uplink/downlink data rate
Cell towers are typically clustered in densely populated areas to serve most of their company’s subscribers better. The capacity of a base station limits cellular traffic across a single site. This capacity limitation usually determines the spacing of cell towers.
Cell towers are typically located 1-2 miles apart in suburban regions; however, towers can be as near as 0.25-0.5 miles apart in busy metropolitan areas. The range will also vary depending on the terrain. It may be able to space towers out between 30-45 miles over level terrain. However, when the terrain is hilly, the operating range can be reduced to as little as 3-5 miles.
What are Cells-on-wheels (COWs)?
Even though cell towers are typically tied to permanent structures, several operators also maintain fleets of vehicles known as cells-on-wheels (COWs). COWs act as makeshift cell sites in the event of broken equipment or power shortages. A generator is often incorporated with the COWs in the event of a power outage at the central base station.
Is There Something Special About 5G Cell Towers?
5G is unique, but whether or not a 5G tower is unique depends on the frequency your carrier utilizes for 5G. Millimeter-wave technology is used by Verizon Ultra-Wideband, AT&T 5G, and several other operators. This wave carries a lot more information but travels a lot less distance than waves with lower frequencies.
5G Ultra-Wideband towers are typically smaller and more prevalent (small cells). They’re the kind of thing you wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for them, but once you do, you’ll notice them everywhere. T- Mobile’s 5G is unique in that it can make use of existing towers. They employ Extended Range 5G, which uses a lower frequency.
How do I locate a cell tower in my area?
We’ve put together a complete guide on how to find the nearest cell tower. For a more thorough examination, we recommend that. Check out the carriers’ cell tower map for a quick and easy way to find a cell tower. It’s not perfect because carriers don’t reveal the position of their cell towers, but it’s a start.
Are there any health concerns with cell towers?
According to EMWatch, there is evidence that these towers are harmful to human (and animal) health and that being close to one raises the risk of specific health problems.
Headaches, insomnia, poor memory, mental stimulation, confusion, anxiety, melancholy, appetite disturbance, and listlessness are common complaints. To put it another way, many radio wave exposure could lead to a host of mental disorders.
There is no evidence that cell phone towers cause cancer, the actual elephant in the room. Even 5G isn’t enough. However, more research is being done in this area.
Bottom line
As technology advances, more and more cell towers will appear throughout the United States. However, as we wait for 5G technology, there are still over 307,000 cell towers around the country that ensure we have cell phone service practically anywhere.
Cell towers are beneficial for sending signals to our phones and other wireless devices. If you’re having trouble getting a cell signal on your phone, check if any structures prevent a cell tower from reaching your location.
