Finding 5G towers near you
Tap Find towers near me to list the registered cell sites around you, with distance, direction, height and owner. There is no public list of which sites broadcast 5G: the FCC licenses 5G spectrum by area and does not record which towers use it. What the list does show is the physical sites near you, and today most carrier sites on large towers have been upgraded to carry 5G alongside LTE.
So the practical way to find 5G towers near you is two steps. First, find the nearest sites here, and use the carrier chips to see which ones name AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile. Second, check the carrier's coverage map for 5G at your address. If the map shows 5G and a site is within a mile or two, that site is the likely source.
Three kinds of 5G, three kinds of site
Low-band and mid-band 5G run on the same towers as 4G, so the tall structures in this list are the ones to look at. Millimetre-wave 5G uses small cells mounted on streetlights and utility poles in dense downtowns, stadiums and airports. Those are far too short to need FCC tower registration, so they do not appear here.
| Band | Examples | Where it lives | Typical reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low band | T-Mobile 600 MHz, AT&T and Verizon 850 MHz | Existing macro towers | Many miles, like LTE |
| Mid band | C-band (3.7 GHz), T-Mobile 2.5 GHz, 3.45 GHz | Existing macro towers, new panel antennas | About a mile or two in towns |
| Millimetre wave | 24 to 47 GHz | Small cells on poles and streetlights | A block or two, line of sight |
Spotting a 5G antenna on a tower
Mid-band 5G usually arrives as a new antenna panel: a squarer, deeper box than the long thin LTE panels, because it holds many small antenna elements for beamforming. On a monopole or lattice tower you may see these added beside the older panels. Millimetre-wave small cells look like a small box or cylinder near the top of a streetlight, often with a cabinet lower down. Our guide to what a 5G tower looks like covers the details.
What the dial and list tell you
- Numbered triangles are the nine nearest sites, placed by their real direction and distance. North is up.
- The arrow beside each distance points toward that site from where you are.
- Carrier chips filter to sites where AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile appears on the FCC record.
- Height matters for reach: a 300-foot tower in open country covers far more ground than a 60-foot monopole in town.
Is 5G safe near a tower?
5G transmitters must meet the same FCC exposure limits as every other radio transmitter. At ground level near a cell tower, exposure is typically far below those limits because the antennas point toward the horizon, high above people. Our page on FCC RF exposure limits sets out the numbers and where they come from.