How tall are cell phone towers

And Millman Land was there since the late s, ensuring that the cell towers are all properly inspected. There are currently more than , cell towers in the United States. Sometimes they can be spotted on tops of buildings. Other times cities require cell towers to blend into the cityscape seamlessly.

Rural areas sometimes hide them in treescapes, disguising them as a tree. Our wireless services include cell tower surveys, cell tower audits and As-builts.

In this article, we aim to tell you more about cell towers and how they work. There are over million cell phones being used daily in the United States. Once the cell tower receives this signal, it will transmit the signals to a switching center. This allows the call to be connected to either another mobile phone or to a telephone network. The insanely fast technology of a cell tower is due to its parts.

There are four wireless networks in the United States that have the best coverage. There are actually four different types of cell towers. The first kind is known as a lattice tower. Also called a self-supporting tower, this type of tower offers incredible flexibility.

It usually has three or four sides with similar shaped bases. The second type of tower is a monopole tower. This type of tower features a single steel or concrete tube tower, usually under 50 meters. It only requires one foundation.

The antennas are attached to the exterior. A guyed tower is cost-effective but requires a bigger amount of land. They are attached to the ground in all directions.

Most radio and television towers are guyed towers. The fourth type is the stealth tower , which we briefly touched upon before. They require additional materials that help them hide in plain sight. While much more appealing, they often do not provide the same amount of capacity for tenants. The equipment on cell towers includes transceivers and other supporting technology. These are installed in cabinets or shelters or any other way that wireless carriers choose to protect them.

Some even create outdoor cabinets on concrete pads or prefabricated equipment shelters. There are multiple antennas attached to a cell tower, typically mounted on a head frame. Some towers even have up to 15 antennas per carrier. Carriers will also install utilities at the cell tower site. Each carrier has power to run to the site as well as phone service.

In urban areas, cell sites commonly emit an ERP of 10 watts per channel or less. As with all forms of electromagnetic energy, the power density from a cellular or PCS transmitter rapidly decreases as distance from the antenna increases.

Consequently, normal ground-level exposure is much less than the exposure that might be encountered if one were very close to the antenna and in its main transmitted beam. In , the FCC adopted updated guidelines for evaluating human exposure to RF fields from fixed transmitting antennas such as those used for cellular and PCS cell sites. The FCC's guidelines are identical to those recommended by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, a non-profit corporation chartered by Congress to develop information and recommendations concerning radiation protection.

The FCC's guidelines also resemble the guidelines recommended by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE , a non-profit technical and professional engineering society, and endorsed by the American National Standards Institute ANSI , a nonprofit, privately-funded membership organization that coordinates development of voluntary national standards in the United States.

In the case of cellular and PCS cell site transmitters, the FCC's RF exposure guidelines recommend a maximum permissible exposure level to the general public of approximately microwatts per square centimeter. This limit is many times greater than RF levels typically found near the base of cellular or PCS cell site towers or in the vicinity of other, lower-powered cell site transmitters. It is very unlikely that a person could be exposed to RF levels in excess of these limits just by being near a cell phone tower.

When a cellular antenna is mounted on a roof, it is possible that a person on the roof could be exposed to RF levels greater than those typically encountered on the ground. But even then, exposure levels approaching or exceeding the FCC safety guidelines are only likely to be found very close to and directly in front of the antennas. If this is the case, access to these areas should be limited.

The level of energy from RF waves inside buildings where a base station is mounted is typically much lower than the level outside, depending on the construction materials of the building. Antennas are pointed away from the side of the building, and the energy level behind the antenna is hundreds to thousands of times lower than in front.

On top of this, wood or cement block reduces the exposure to energy from RF waves by a factor of about Therefore, if an antenna is mounted on the side of a building, the exposure level in the room directly behind the wall is typically well below the recommended exposure limits.

Newer, smaller versions of base stations often referred to as small cells , which are part of fifth generation 5G cellular networks, are discussed below. Some people have expressed concern that living, working, or going to school near a cell phone tower might increase the risk of cancer or other health problems.

At this time, there isn't a lot of evidence to support this idea. Still, more research is needed to be sure. The American Cancer Society ACS does not have any official position or statement on whether or not radiofrequency RF radiation from cell phones, cell phone towers, or other sources is a cause of cancer. ACS generally looks to other expert organizations to determine if something causes cancer that is, if it is a carcinogen , including:.

Other major organizations might also comment on the ability of certain exposures to cause cancer. However, some other agencies have commented on cell tower safety. These safety limits were adopted by the FCC based on the recommendations of expert organizations and endorsed by agencies of the Federal Government responsible for health and safety.

Therefore, there is no reason to believe that such towers could constitute a potential health hazard to nearby residents or students. More recently, the US Food and Drug Administration FDA issued a technical report based on results of studies published between and , as well as national trends in cancer rates. So far, the National Toxicology Program NTP has not included RF radiation in its Report on Carcinogens , which lists exposures that are known to be or reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens.