North Carolina cell towers at a glance
The FCC records list 4,408 cell towers and other antenna sites in North Carolina: every registered antenna structure that is built and still standing, plus the licensed cellular transmitter sites too short to need registration. That ranks North Carolina 9th of the 51 states and DC by number of registered sites. The most common structure is the tower, with 1,259 sites (29%). Charlotte has the most listed sites of any city, at 166.
To see the ones near you, tap Find towers near me above or type a North Carolina ZIP code. The list ranks sites by distance and shows the direction to each, its height and its owner.
Carriers on the record in North Carolina
Verizon is named on the most North Carolina sites, 523 of them (12%). A carrier is named only when it owns the structure or its cellular licence lists the site, so these counts are a floor, not a total. Most towers in North Carolina are owned by tower companies that rent space to several carriers without naming them.
| Carrier | Sites naming it | Share of North Carolina sites |
|---|---|---|
| Verizon | 523 | 12% |
| AT&T | 53 | 1.2% |
| T-Mobile | 5 | 0.1% |
Who owns the towers in North Carolina
The largest single owner name in North Carolina is American Towers LLC, with 896 sites (20%). Tower companies file under several subsidiary names, so one company can appear more than once below. Our guide to who owns cell towers explains which names belong together.
| Owner as filed | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| American Towers LLC | 896 | 20% |
| ARRAY DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE, INC. | 363 | 8.2% |
| Crown Castle South LLC | 288 | 6.5% |
| SBA Towers, LLC | 127 | 2.9% |
| North Carolina State Highway Patrol | 117 | 2.7% |
| Alltel Corporation | 102 | 2.3% |
| American Towers, LLC | 87 | 2.0% |
| Duke Energy Business Services, LLC | 82 | 1.9% |
Types of structure
| Structure | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tower | 1,259 | 29% |
| Lattice tower | 1,158 | 26% |
| Monopole | 754 | 17% |
| Guyed tower | 602 | 14% |
| Pole | 259 | 5.9% |
| Other structure | 183 | 4.2% |
See types of cell towers for how to recognise each one.
Cities with the most listed sites
By the city named on each FCC filing. Filings use the nearest town, so rural towers count toward it. Each link opens the tower finder at the middle of that city's sites.
| City | Sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Charlotte | 166 | Towers around Charlotte |
| Greensboro | 110 | Towers around Greensboro |
| Raleigh | 100 | Towers around Raleigh |
| Greenville | 71 | Towers around Greenville |
| Fayetteville | 68 | Towers around Fayetteville |
| Wilmington | 64 | Towers around Wilmington |
| Winston Salem | 57 | Towers around Winston Salem |
| Durham | 47 | Towers around Durham |
| Jacksonville | 47 | Towers around Jacksonville |
| Statesville | 44 | Towers around Statesville |
Tallest registered structures in North Carolina
The tallest is a tower near Dallas at 2,001 feet (610 m) overall, owned by Gray Local Media, Inc.. Structures this tall are usually broadcast masts or buildings rather than cell sites, but many carry cell antennas partway up.
| Height | Type | City | Owner | ASR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,001 ft | Tower | Dallas | Gray Local Media, Inc. | 1005062 |
| 2,001 ft | Other structure | Garner | Auburn Tower Partnership | 1006703 |
| 1,998 ft | Guyed tower | Dallas | WCNC-TV, Inc. | 1001294 |
| 1,995 ft | Tower | Clayton | WTVD Television, LLC | 1010348 |
| 1,988 ft | Tower | Trenton | EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA BROADCASTING CORPORATION | 1011271 |
What is not counted
FCC registration is required only for structures over 200 feet or near airports, so shorter monopoles, rooftop antennas and small cells in North Carolina are mostly missing unless a cellular licence lists them. Why a tower is missing from the map explains the gap. The data is rebuilt monthly from the FCC's bulk files.