Tower question.

[Rollindown95]

how do cell companies and the companies subcontracted to actually build the tower decide on the best location, is it satellitle calculated? or do they just go for places where the get complaints about there not being good service at? do they stand at potential locations and use equipment to check for ranges and capabilities? this stuff intrigues me

[TelcomJunkie]

Originally Posted by Rollindown95

how do cell companies and the companies subcontracted to actually build the tower decide on the best location, is it satellitle calculated? or do they just go for places where the get complaints about there not being good service at? do they stand at potential locations and use equipment to check for ranges and capabilities? this stuff intrigues me

The specifics will depend on the actual carrier but the basics are the same throughout. When an initial buildout is done in a market the company identifies what ares it wants to cover first. Typically highways/airports and major business area. They'll look for prospective sites in those area once identifying good prospects they'll approach the landlord and try to arrange for field tests of that location. The areas for prospective sites are determined a lot by the local terrain, capacity needs and easy of buildout.

Once the initial buildout is complete and they're working on filling in the gaps they work off a combination of modeling software, drive test results and customer complaints to work out which exact area should be covered on a higher priority than others.

[Rollindown95]

what would the field testing include?

[hillbilly44]

Originally Posted by Rollindown95

what would the field testing include?

drive testing is done alot with specialized software that makes calls and that data is reviewed for signal levels, dropped calls, signal quality, etc.

[TelcomJunkie]

Wow, re-reading my original post... please ignore all the spelling, tense and grammar errors

[wirles]

Originally Posted by hillbilly44

drive testing is done alot with specialized software that makes calls and that data is reviewed for signal levels, dropped calls, signal quality, etc.

I could go on for hours/pages. Go to Andrew.com and look at Invertix. Also Google, Ericsson TEMS. Another site to check out is Actix.com

[tower master]

Originally Posted by wirles

I could go on for hours/pages. Go to Andrew.com and look at Invertix. Also Google, Ericsson TEMS. Another site to check out is Actix.com

Planet EV is another good one.

Edit: Ok, it's part of the TEMS portfolio. My bad.

[RadioFoneGuy]

Sites are based on Coverage and Capacity. We use propogation software with an estimated ERP (estimated Radio power). Alot of times we will try to Co-locate which is easier than a new build. Using drive test gear like Temms, Pro Scout, Data Pro Etc you can get a good idea of where towers are needed. I can tell just with a field test phone a idea of what is needed. You also have to take RSSI levels (tower signal level) in accout. The bars on the phone actually have a numeric signal level that you can only see on test gear.

[RadioFoneGuy]

I looked back at my post and notice the same thing. I have years and years of RF and electronics training, but my grammer looks like I failed HS english.

Oh well good thing I dont make a living on penmanship either.

[wirles]

Originally Posted by Cellonetech

...estimated ERP (estimated Radio power)...

Effective Radiated Power

[TelcomJunkie]

Originally Posted by wirles

Effective Radiated Power

Is what keeps me employed.

[RadioFoneGuy]

ERP your right. Im used to trying to simplify things so people understand what Im talking about. I usually botch my acronyms anyways. And spell check is my best friend Ha. To many acronyms in our biz.

RACH, DCCH, BCCH, VSWR, SWR, TRX, and so on and so on.