What Is a Cell Tower? A cell tower or also known as a cell site is a cellular telephone site where electric communications equipment and antennae are mounted. Some of this equipment are transmitters, receivers, control electronics, and additional power sources used for backup.
Cell towers are usually built by a tower company or a wireless carrier looking to expand their network coverage or capacity. The purpose of a cell phone tower is to facilitate the signal reception of cellular phones and other wireless communication devices like telephone, television, and radio in a cellular network.
How Do Cell Towers Work?
Whenever you use your mobile phone to make a call, it emits electromagnetic radio waves also known as radio frequency or RF energy. Once the radio waves are emitted, the antenna from the nearest cell phone tower will receive them. The antennas of a cell tower can both transmit and receive signals from mobile phones. After receiving the radio waves from a mobile phone, it will then transmit the signals to a switching center which is a telephone exchange for mobile phones. This allows the call to be connected to either another mobile phone or to a telephone network.
Parts of a Cell Tower
A cell phone tower is made up of the following parts.
The Tower
There are four different types of cell towers.
Lattice Tower: This is also known as a self-supporting tower. It affords the greatest flexibility and is often used in heavy loading conditions. It usually has three or four sides with similar shaped bases.
Monopole Tower: This is a single steel or concrete tube tower. It usually does not exceed 50 meters and it requires one foundation. The antennas are attached on the exterior of the tower.
Guyed Tower: This used to be the cheapest tower to construct. However, it requires the greatest amount of land. It’s much cheaper to build a guyed tower for taller heights such as 100 meters or greater. Most of the radio and television towers are guyed towers. It is a straight tower connected by guy wires that anchor and support the tower. They are attached to the ground in all directions.
Stealth Tower: These towers are typically required by councils and owners. They are more expensive than the other types of towers because they require additional material to stealth or hide their appearance. They also do not provide the same amount of capacity for tenants.
The Equipment
The tenants who attach their antennae on the cell tower uses transceivers and other supporting equipment installed in cabinets or in shelters. Wireless carriers have their own ways of protecting their equipment. Some places outdoor cabinets on concrete pads while others used prefabricated equipment shelters.
The Antennas
There are multiple antennas attached on a cell tower and they are typically mounted on a head frame. Sometimes only a few as three antennas are mounted while some cell towers have as many as fifteen antennas per carrier. The number of antennas depends on the technology, antenna performance, coverage, and capacity required.
Utilities
Cell towers have utilities installed at the site to be used by the carriers. Each initial carrier usually has power run to the site as well as phone service.
Access
Each cell tower or cell site will require access by the carriers for both initial installation and ongoing maintenance or repair activities. These may require a separate track to the mobile tower site.
The Cell Tower’s Range
There are places where we often see a lot of cell towers. If they are allowed to stand near one another, what could the range of each cell tower be?
The range of a cell tower in which mobile devices connects reliably to it is not a fixed figure and it may depend on some of these factors.
The height of the antenna over the surrounding landscape.
The frequency of the signal in use.
The rated power of the transmitter.
The directional characteristics of the antenna array on the site.
The absorption and reflection of radio energy by buildings or vegetation.
The local geographical or regulatory factors and weather conditions.
In those areas where there are enough cell towers to cover a wide area, the range of each one will be set to ensure that there is enough overlap from or to other sites and to ensure that the overlap area is not too large, to avoid interference problems with other cell towers or sites. Cell towers are usually grouped in areas with high population density or those places with the most potential users.
There are times when our mobile phones do not have a signal. It can be because we’re too far from a tower, or the cell phone signals in our location are decreased by thick building walls, hills, or other structures. The signals from a cell tower do not need a clear line of sight but a greater radio interference will eliminate reception. Also, when a lot of people try to use a cell tower at the same time such as during events, or in a traffic jam, there’s a tendency for the signal to be blocked.
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