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obviously your phone gets its signal from a cell tower but where do those

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towers get their signals from do they pass data between each other or is there

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one tower at some headquarters somewhere acting as a source of all the content

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most cell towers are basically big wireless antennas connected to a router

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at the base via cables which are plugged into the back hall of

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the carrier's network so you can both make voice calls and connect to the

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internet if you think about it the setup is kind of like a really big version of

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a wi-fi access point connected to a normal router or modem but this doesn't

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mean that towers never talk to each other if you look up the next time

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you're riding past one you might see an antenna globe down to the side of the

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tower that looks like a big ball dish or drum these are special microwave

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antennas responsible for wireless backhaul and they're usually pointed

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directly at another tower in case there's a problem with the wired network

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underground and some towers even use microwave antennas exclusively to get

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your phone traffic where it needs to go especially if laying cables in an area

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is too expensive or physically unfeasible but the backhaul just

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connects towers to your carrier it doesn't connect to your phone so

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where are the antennas that actually provide your phone with a signal then

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link below okay stare at a cell tower for a little longer and you'll see

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skinnier vertically oriented antennas these are what give your phone that

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sweet 4g or 5g unlike the typical

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wireless router antenna which blasts a signal out 360 degrees

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cell antennas are usually more directional they focus the signal one

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way although this might sound counterintuitive as you obviously want

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to have a signal extend out in all directions from around the tower

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it actually makes sense having multiple directional antennas

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provides a stronger signal than just one central omnidirectional antenna a

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typical setup is to have them arranged in a triangle with each covering 120

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degrees instead of 360. on the side of each triangle you might have something

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like three directional antennas covering 40 degrees of space each you might also

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see multiple layers of antennas stacked on a tower but this is usually not for

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signal strength instead it's common for different wireless carriers to share a

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tower with whoever gets there first typically taking the very top level kind

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of like siblings fighting over the bunk bed but the real ones know that the

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bottom bunk is actually the best and although it can be hard to tell from the

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ground these antennas are often tilted slightly downward and transmitting at

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reduced power to reduce interference with neighboring towers

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ideally this is calibrated so the signal extends to just the end of where the

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next tower picks up so that you won't run into any dead zones

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on that note exactly how far does a cell signal reach

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well if we're talking about a 4g tower that has some open space around it those

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can send a signal to about 40 miles or so

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mid band 5g though has a significantly shorter range of only around 6 miles at

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best so instead of very tall towers that try to blast signals as far as possible

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the faster iterations of 5g tend to use shorter towers that are relatively close

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together sometimes well under a mile apart some cell deployments even place

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antennas on the sides of buildings obviating the need for a tower at all

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and this might become more common as 5g continues to roll out in dense urban

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areas but it is a shame that city dwellers might never experience the

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beauty of a fake cell tower cactus thanks for watching guys like dislike

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maybe check out some of our other videos comment with video suggestions down

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below and don't forget to subscribe and follow