How Far Can a Cell Tower Be for a Cellphone to Pick Up the Signal? Small Business

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The maximum distance between a cellphone and a cell tower depends on many different factors. The connecting technology, landscape features, the power of the transmitter in the tower, the size of the cellphone network cell and the design capacity of the network all play a role. Sometimes the celltower transmitter is set to low power on purpose so that it doesn't interfere with neighboring cells. Often hills, trees or buildings interfere with transmission. Any of these factors might prevent you from getting a signal, even if a cell tower is quite close.

Maximum Distance A typical cellphone has enough power to reach a cell tower up to 45 miles away. Depending on the technology of the cellphone network, the maximum distance may be as low as 22 miles because the signal otherwise takes too long for the highly accurate timing of the cellphone protocol to work reliably. Usually cellphone signals don't reach anywhere near these maximum distances. Typical cell size outside of urban areas means cellphone signals may have to travel up to several miles.

Sources of Interference Cellphone signals are in a frequency range that travels in a straight line and has limited penetration capabilities. Interference weakens the signal and means that cellphones may not be able to reach a cell tower that is quite close. Sources of interference are natural obstacles such as hills and trees or man-made structures such as buildings, walls and tunnels. In urban areas, cellphones blocked from one cell tower may connect to another one nearby, but in rural areas, interference with coverage from a single cell tower may make reception unreliable.

Capacity Planning Carriers often reduce the distance between a cellphone and a cell tower due to capacity issues. A cellphone carrier receives a certain number of frequencies to use in his network at a given location. Each cell tower can handle a maximum number of calls determined by the number of separate frequencies. If the carrier expects that his customers may make more calls, he reduces the size of his cell and re-uses the frequencies in a neighboring cell. This means that, especially in urban areas, cell towers may be a fraction of a mile from the cellphone.

Cell Size When cell sizes in a cellphone network shrink, carriers reduce the power of the transmitters on their cell towers to eliminate interference with neighboring cells using the same frequencies. Operating on such low power, a cell tower may have to be within a few hundred yards of a cellphone for the cellphone to pick up its signal. If interference blocks one tower with a weak signal, a cellphone may connect with another nearby tower.

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