Obviously, your phone gets its signal from a cell tower, but where do those towers get
their signals from? Do they pass data between each other, or is there one tower at some
headquarters somewhere acting as a source of all the content? Most cell towers are basically
big wireless antennas connected to a router at the base via cables, which are plugged into the
back hall of the carrier's network so you can both make voice calls and connect to the internet.
If you think about it, the setup is kind of like a really big version of a Wi-Fi access point
connected to a normal router or modem. But this doesn't mean that towers never talk to each other.
If you look up the next time you're riding past one, you might see an antenna glob down to the
side of the tower that looks like a big bowl, dish, or drum. These are special microwave antennas
responsible for wireless back hall, and they're usually pointed directly at another tower in
case there's a problem with the wired network underground. And some towers even use microwave
antennas exclusively to get your phone traffic where it needs to go, especially if laying cables
in an area is too expensive or physically unfeasible. But the back hall just connects towers to your
carrier. It doesn't connect to your phone. So where are the antennas that actually provide your
phone with a signal then? Okay, steer to cell tower for a little longer, and you'll see skinnier,
vertically oriented antennas. These are what give your phone that sweet 4G or 5G.
Unlike the typical wireless router antenna, which blasts a signal out 360 degrees,
cell antennas are usually more directional. They focus the signal one way. Although this might
sound counterintuitive, as you obviously want to have a signal extend out in all directions from
around the tower, it actually makes sense. Having multiple directional antennas provides a stronger
signal than just one central omnidirectional antenna. A typical setup is to have them arranged
in a triangle, with each covering 120 degrees instead of 360. On the side of each triangle,
you might have something like three directional antennas covering 40 degrees of space each.
You might also see multiple layers of antennas stacked on a tower. But this is usually not
for signal strength. Instead, it's common for different wireless carriers to share a tower.
With whoever gets there first, typically taking the very top level, kind of like siblings fighting
over the bunk bed. But the real ones know that the bottom bunk is actually the best.
And although it can be hard to tell from the ground, these antennas are often tilted slightly
downward, and transmitting at reduced power to reduce interference with neighboring towers.
Ideally, this is calibrated so that the signal extends to just the end of where the next tower
picks up so that you won't run into any dead zones. On that note, exactly how far does a cell
signal reach? Well, if we're talking about a 4G tower that has some open space around it,
those can send a signal to about 40 miles or so. Midband 5G, though, has a significantly
shorter range of only around 6 miles at best. So instead of very tall towers that try to
blast signals as far as possible, the faster iterations of 5G tend to use shorter towers
that are relatively close together, sometimes well under a mile apart. Some cell deployments
even place antennas on the sides of buildings, obviating the need for a tower at all.
And this might become more common as 5G continues to roll out in dense urban areas.
But it is a shame that city dwellers might never experience the beauty of a fake cell tower cactus.
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