How Cell Phone Towers Work?
A
cell-phone tower is typically a
steel pole or lattice structure that rises hundreds of feet into the
air. This cell-phone tower along I-85 near
Greenville, SC, is typical in
the United States:
This
is a modern tower with three different cell-phone providers riding on
the same structure. If you look at the base of the tower, you can see
that each provider has its own equipment, and you can also see how
little equipment is involved today (older towers often have small
buildings at the base):
Here
is the equipment owned by one of the providers:
The
box houses the
radio transmitters and receivers
that let the tower communicate with the phones. The
radios connect with the antennae
on the tower through a set of thick cables:
If
you look closely, you will see that the tower and all of the cables and
equipment at the base of the tower are heavily
grounded.
For example, the plate in this shot with the green wires bolting onto it
is a solid copper grounding plate:
One
sure sign that multiple providers share this tower is the amazing
five-way latch on the gate. Any one of five people can unlock this gate
to get in.
Cell-phone towers come in all
shapes and sizes, but I do believe this one in Morrisville, North
Carolina, is one of the weirdest looking.
That
is one tall, ugly tree!
Like
all consumer electronics, cell phones come with their share of problems.
In the next section, we'll take a look at some of the issues facing cell
phones. Continue reading about
How Cell Phones Work & Cell Phone Frequencies