Not the greatest pic, but I took a couple of snap shots of this cell site on a water tower. I couldn't figure out who is on this water tower in Michigan, so I took a close up shot. Any guesses?
little, stubby, partially shielded. my guess is that it might be nextel? only way to know for sure is to go to the base and check it out yourself!
Yeah, I was at the base, but they didn't label anything. There were just a couple of really small cabinets. Would T-Mobile do something like this?
I've never seen anything like that for T-Mobile. Hell, it might be some local government or utility running it. Back home, the power company has a set up that looks exactly like a cell site at every power sub-station.
That could possibly be it too. I just wish I took a picture of the cabinets. This is located on the Imlay City water tower in Michigan. I'm almost positive it's a cell site though. I may have to post the full pic in the gallery and see if anybody else can guess.
It could be for the water tower control - is it pointing towards where the city maintains public services like water and sewer?
Thats pretty close to a Verizon panel here in Kentucky. You can see my cell pics in the Kentucky section to compare. But, Nextel does look similar.
I can tell you for sure, it is not Verizon. Verizon Wireless, as well as Sprint and AT&T are located on a tall multi-carrier tower a couple blocks away. That's why I was thinking either T-Mobile or Nextel. I'll have to dig up a pic of the Verizon tower, but I have posted the full picture of this water tower in the gallery.
cell antennas are quite popular on water towers.. not sure maybe there is a cabinet somewhere on the ground with some kind of identifier?
Water towers are definitely a popular location for cell sites in the US. Not as many in Ontario/Canada.
If the cabinets are small and not a building, then it is not Nextel. So your best best would be T-mobile or a regional carrier. Edit: For sure its not T-Mobile, they are on a tower on S Almont Ave. Metro PCS appears to be on the main tower on East 1st Street. This appears to be a paging service tower as their is only 1 panel in each direction, not enough for a cellular service in an rural area such as this.
That looks revolutionary for some reason. I've never seen anything like that on what seems to be a water tower?
Plenty of those all throughout the US. Here are some examples: http://gallery.wirelessadvisor.com/browseimages.php?do=searchresults&searchid=6136
Yeah, water towers seemed to be used as cell sites a lot more in the US. Not too many water towers in Canada or in Ontario for that matter that have cellular antennae on them.
The answer to the question is simple. Just call the water company's engineering department and ask them whose antenna is on their tower. As a public agency they're probably obligated to disclose this kind of information.
I don't think it would be off cellular co. antenna, it would be some other device antenna such as radio station like that.