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By that argument, you could also just build one extremely powerful tower and cover a vast region. But that would support far less data, because everyone in the
by ef4 14y ago
By that argument, you could also just build one extremely powerful tower and cover a vast region. But that would support far less data, because everyone in the region would be waiting for a turn to broadcast at the same frequency.
This is why cellular phones are called cellular phones. The key enabling technology was the ability to divide a large geographic area into many smaller cells. Each cell needs to use different frequencies than its neighboring cells, but you can reuse the same frequencies many times across the wider region.
The smaller you make the cells, the more data you can pack into the same set of frequencies, because non-neighboring cells can be using the same frequency concurrently.
- cma 14y agoAlso, each tower has many directional antennas, so one tower acts as multiple cells.
- CapitalistCartr 14y agoWith analog cellular, yes. With digital cellular, several connections can share a given frequency, somewhat expanding the number of connections per tower, although there is still a limit. However, I find that AT&T ignores the pressing bandwidth needs of the customers. During rush hour, no matter how perfect my signal strength, I get terrible data bandwidth. Its not the cell tower, its the connection from there onward.
- jff 14y agoPlus, with a single huge tower, your handsets are fighting the inverse square law as they struggle to pump out enough wattage to keep a connection.