Ramada Inn Panel Array

Those panels look exactly like the German GSM 900/1800 antenna panels. How do you guys tell CDMA and GSM panels apart from one another? Obviously here in Europe, you don't have to guess about the network standard being used, just about the provider even though there are several sites which keep track of antenna sites in most German cities and that's how I can provide addt'l details.

Who's the in-house expert then ?

Panels don't have to look different just because their GSM or CDMA or iDen. Of course a lot of the time CDMA carriers will have shielding around their shark fin panels, but I've seen some old Cingular sites do that as well.
In my area, just by looking at a site, I can tell who the carrier is 95% of the time. 800 panels will usually look different that 1900 panels. Most old Verizon setups in this area are sharkfins, and new setups are one thick panel per sector. It's just an area thing mostly, knowing what each carrier typically uses in a specific area, and you can tell dual band setups as well as frequency of the panels by carrier.

not me thats for sure, sometime i know by having had that service.

You can't really. For example, here in NZ Vodafone GSM 900MHz and Telecom AMPS/TDMA/CDMA 800MHz have simalar types of panels. In fact some of their panels look excatly the same, so I guess they sometimes buy the antennas from the same firm who produces the same design for either 800MHz or 900MHZ or possibly both. The only obivous ones are the GSM 1800MHz and UMTS 2000/2100MHz panels since they are generally thinner than the 800/900MHz panels.

Onmis are even worse as they look excatly the same regardless of who made it. But generally Telecom use onmis, while Vodafone generally tends to prefer panels so they can put in more capacity ahead of demand. So usually if I see an omni, I can just assume it's Telecom unless I have other information (usually netmonitor) to prove otherwise.

This situation is indeed quite annoying. When I started out doing cell site spotting thing a few years ago I found it quite difficult to tell the difference betwen many Telecom and Vodafone sites due to the simalar design of the antennas. More recently Vodafone has been rolling out 3G in 2100MHz so it's made the hobby much more easier these days!

Regards,
James

heh. When I first started in 02/00 I thought every red and white tower was AT&T Wireless. I even thought the FCC licensee name was a seperate wireless carrier (such that we had service from Virginia Metronet, not 360 at the time).