subject: How to Choose a Cell Site [print this page] One of the most important utilities that govern today's urban lifestyle is cellular mobile telephony. Apart from basic voice services, mobile services today offer a wide array of data services too, and all this requires a strong network to handle humungous information exchange. Cellular networks are named so because of their topology that resembles honeycomb cells. At the center of each cell is a cell site or what is commonly known as mobile transmission tower/ equipment.
A cell site or a mobile tower basically consists of telecommunication antenna and transmission equipment mounted on an elevated structure. Tower installation is not always required because quite often cell site antennas are mounted to buildings. The elevation helps achieve line of sight contact with neighboring cell sites, which in turn facilitates unhindered communication.
Considerations for Cell Sites
There are various considerations regarding cell sites and tower installation when planning a telecommunications project. The number of cell sites and tower installation impacts the project costs and plays an important role in maintaining the quality of service. Densely populated areas require more cell sites to cover subscribers located there, and thus, may entail a higher installation cost.
Range of the Cell Site
Depending on the distance between two cell sites in a particular area of coverage, cell sites may be selected based on their transmission range, which may vary from few hundred meters to even a few kilometers. In urban installation where cell sites can be located closer to each other with high-rise rooftops available for mounting, the range required may be less.
In far-flung places where cell sites need to be mounted on a self-supporting or a guyed radio mast, the range required would be higher, since constructing more self supporting towers would be economically unviable.
Channel Reuse
Channel reuse is a feature that becomes extremely crucial in densely populated areas, where a very large number of conversations need to be managed through the same amount of allocated spectrum. This is where cell sites with smart multiplexing capabilities may be used to club in as many conversations as possible without any call drops. This factor may not be as critical in rural or remote locations.
Choosing cell sites is a key part of the overall telecommunication network setup project. For any telecom services company, the priority is to get the services up and running at the earliest and at minimum project cost.
In such cases, hiring a turnkey telecom service provider like Mer Telecom to handle the network setup project, including selecting and deploying cell sites as well as tower installation, makes a lot of business sense.
