How Do You Tell If You Have A Cell Tower Close By?

More cell towers are being built as the introduction of next-generation 5G wireless networks. Regarding cell coverage, location matters regardless of which smartphone you choose or which carrier you use.

If you’re not getting the signal strength you want, then you may want to know if there’s a cell phone tower close by. It doesn’t have to be challenging to locate the nearest cell phone tower in your neighborhood, in your rural house, or even when traveling. It all starts with acquainting yourself with several websites to locate cell towers that are beneficial and simple to use.

Here’s the guide to find out if there is a cell phone tower near you.

What Is A Cell Tower?

Cell towers, also known as cell sites, house electric communications equipment and antennae, allowing people in the region to utilize wireless communication devices such as phones and radios.

When a tower company or a wireless carrier expands its network coverage or capacity, a cell tower is usually built to provide a better reception signal in that location. Cell towers can be found almost anywhere across the world. But how close does a cell tower have to be to provide good service?

Distance Between Cellphone Towers

Cell phones rely on tower signals to work. The stronger and less distorted your signal is, the closer you are to the tower, resulting in a better phone and internet connection.  However, you don’t have to be right next to a cell phone tower to get a good signal.

While most mobile phones can receive a signal from a tower up to 45 miles away, that distance does not necessarily result in a functional signal. The environment may limit a signal’s efficacy over distance, buildings, and other barriers, rendering it too faint to be useful once it reaches your phone.

Determining Cellphone Tower Locations

several cell towers, a tower on the top of a hill, trees, hills, area covered by trees, standing towers

A mobile phone tower map is the most valuable and easy tool for determining the location of the nearest cell tower and the direction your signal is coming from.

You can enter some basic information on various websites and get a map of cell towers in your area. To use the maps, you have to locate well-known landmarks and significant roads to determine your location with various cell towers, but that’s no different from using Google Maps to discover the next barbecue restaurant. Although you won’t get a street address, you should check to see any operational cell phone towers nearby.

CellMapper

This cell tower locator must be your favorite because of its user-friendly layout and multiple filtering options. This app lets you filter by provider and service type before looking for towers near your address or location. To use it, scroll through to choose your nation, select your cell carrier, network speed, and enter an address or zip code to discover the nearest cell towers.

CellReception

This website will let you search for a list of all FCC-registered cell phone towers in a specific city. You may sort the results by the carrier and read user reviews to discover how other cell phone users in the area are dealing with signal issues. If a cell phone tower has been registered with the FCC, you may see it on the Towers page. Type in your search criteria (city, state, or zip code) and hit “Go.”

SCADAcore

This site displays a map of cell towers across the United States and lets you drill down by selecting your area or entering your latitude and longitude. The data was obtained from the FCC’s website. Zoom in on the map to your location to discover the nearest tower.

AntennaSearch

When you enter a street address into the site’s search engine, you’ll get a quick list of all mobile phone towers within a three-mile radius of your location. On Google Maps, the exact addresses of registered cell towers are mapped, together with information about the tower’s height, construction date, and owner. The design is antiquated and inaccessible to the typical user, despite the site’s abundance of content.

Mobile Phone Tower Location Apps

a man holding a phone, a worried face, a man holding a phone with a seaside background, a man with a hat, bag, scarf, and phone

You can also get mobile phone tower location apps for your smartphone. This allows you to locate a cell tower, which is convenient for regular travelers no matter where you are. If you need a simple way to find cell phone towers near your home or your favorite relaxation destination, consider downloading a cell tower finder app. You’ll almost certainly find anything you’re looking for in a cell tower finding app on the App Store or Google Play.

OpenSignal App

The OpenSignal app displays coverage maps for all major networks based on user-generated data, both iPhone and Android users can benefit from this app. The software shows you the availability of 2G, 3G, and 4G networks (together with stats and speeds encountered on networks worldwide) to help you correctly estimate the everyday experience you may expect on your cellular smartphone.

Network Cell Info Lite

Network Cell Info Lite is an Android-only software that is one of Google Play’s most popular cell tower finder apps. This software uses their database to show you cell tower sites so you can quickly track signal strength in a particular area. This program can track WiFi and cell signals in real-time and display maps with network and cellular information and signal meter gauges.

Cell Tower Locator

Only the Android version of the Cell Tower Locator app is available, and it provides approximate tower locations based on database information. Cell IDs, signal strength, and GPS location are all displayed on the app’s interface.

Cellular Network Signal Finder

This software is available for iPhones and allows you to discover nearby cell phone towers by using your current location. The fact that you can’t filter by your preferred service provider is a drawback of this software.

Covered

Check out the Coverage app to see how fast your cell phone connection is wherever you live, work, or visit in the United States. The average download and upload speeds for each leading wireless provider may be found using this helpful tool.

Conclusion

Finding a tower and determining whether or not it is within range is merely the first step. Likely, the nearest tower isn’t close enough to you if you’re still getting a weak signal. However, if you’re getting any signal from that tower, there’s still hope!