Short, sourced explanations of how cell towers work and what the FCC records behind our tower finder can and cannot tell you. Start with range and 5G if you are chasing better signal, with ownership and leases if you own land near a tower, and with the FCC registration guide if you want to read a tower's filing yourself.
Guides
- What does a 5G tower look like?: Usually like the tower that was already there, with a new, squarer antenna panel. Only millimetre-wave 5G looks different.
- How far can a cell tower reach?: From a block or two to more than 20 miles. Band, height, terrain and how busy the site is decide it.
- Which cell tower am I connected to?: Your phone knows the cell it is using. Getting it to tell you takes a hidden menu or an app, and matching it to a tower takes one more step.
- Why a tower is missing from the map: Every public cell tower map starts from the same FCC records, and those records only cover some structures. Here is what gets left out and why.
- Who owns cell towers?: Mostly not the phone companies. Specialist tower companies own the largest share and rent space to every carrier.
- Types of cell towers: Monopoles, lattice towers, guyed masts and disguised sites each suit different ground, heights and neighbours.
- Cell tower lease rates: Rent for a cell tower site is negotiated, not listed. These are the factors that move it and the clauses that matter as much as the headline number.
- A cell tower on my property: Carriers pick sites, not landowners. Here is how a site gets chosen, what happens if yours is, and what to look at before you sign.
- Cell tower RF exposure limits: Cell sites must meet FCC limits on radio-frequency exposure. Here is what the limits are, where they come from and what exposure near a tower is typically like.
- FCC antenna structure registration explained: The ASR number on a tower's fence is its FCC registration. It is the source of every public tower map, and it tells you more than the owner's name.
Tower finders
- Verizon towers near me: Registered towers and cell sites with Verizon named on the FCC record, nearest first, with the direction to each.
- T-Mobile towers near me: Registered sites with T-Mobile, or the Sprint and Nextel networks it absorbed, on the FCC record. Nearest first.
- AT&T towers near me: Registered towers and cellular licence sites with AT&T or Cingular on the FCC record, ranked by distance from you.
- 5G towers near me: The registered cell sites around you, nearest first, and how to tell which ones carry 5G.
For tower counts, owners and carriers in each state, see cell towers by state.