Find Nearby Towers & Improve Cell Phone Signal
Your cell phone service provider installs towers that broadcast cellular signals. If you are in close proximity to a tower that broadcasts those cell signals then you will have a strong signal on your device. The signal weakens as you travel away from the tower, and can become too weak to transfer data or hold calls. This loss of signal strength is called attenuation. If you are planning to use a booster to improve cell phone signal, you’ll need to locate the nearest cell tower and point the outdoor antenna in that direction.
Why is My Cell Signal so Weak?
Your distance from a cell tower at any given time is the main factor affecting cell signal. If you are too far away from a tower, weak signal can be the result. Of course, there are other factors that influence your reception, but this one is the most common, especially if you travel to or live in a rural area.
Obstacles and building materials can also affect signal strength, and these 3 factors can be affecting your cellular signal in various ways. Understanding the combination of factors affecting your cell signal can help you to find the best solution.
After decades of experience working with commercial signal systems, we designed and built three products that work in any space regardless of the variety of factors that might be affecting your cell signal. All you have to do is decide where to boost your bars – in a car or boat, RV or portable home, house, or small office.
How to Find Nearby Cell Towers
There are plenty of free resources available to help you find nearby cell towers. Although there might be many located near you, not all of them broadcast the signal your cell phone carrier uses and that you pay to use.
This website is easy to use. Simply provide your city and state, and view search results on a Google Maps display with plotted nearby towers. You can also filter the display to show only towers used by certain carriers, which is helpful because unfiltered results show all towers and not just cell towers.
While using this site, remember that it is comprehensive and includes all towers, even private communications towers or those used by broadcasting (TV, radio) stations. All you need to do is enter your street address and the database will plot nearby towers onto a Google Map. The results also show you the height of the tower, its exact distance from you in miles, history of ownership, owner details, and its address when available.
- Cell Map
There are plenty of apps available to help you locate the nearest cell tower. Cell Map is a free Android app that displays your carrier’s towers, the type of signal you are receiving (GSM, LTE, CDMA), and the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) reading in dBm.
Finding the Tower of your Small Carrier
MVNOs, or mobile virtual network operators, rent tower space from larger networks. This table shows you which networks MVNOs use, and you’ll need to look for that major carrier’s towers to locate your nearest cell tower if you use a prepaid cell phone carrier’s service. Learn more about the frequencies used by mobile carriers or visit Wikipedia for a list of MVNOs that operate in the US.
| Carrier | Tower |
|---|---|
| AT&T | Owns and operates its own network |
| Boost Mobile | Sprint |
| Consumer Cellular | AT&T, T-Mobile |
| CREDO Mobile | Verizon |
| Cricket | AT&T |
| FreedomPop | Sprint, AT&T |
| MetroPCS | T-Mobile |
| Net 10 | T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, U.S. Cellular |
| Project Fi | T-Mobile, Sprint, U.S. Cellular |
| Simple Mobile | T-Mobile |
| Sprint | Owns and operates its own network |
| Straight Talk | Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T |
| Ting | T-Mobile, Sprint |
| T-Mobile | Owns and operates its own network |
| Tracfone | Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, U.S. Cellular |
| U.S. Cellular | Owns and operates its own network |
| US Mobile | T-Mobile |
| Verizon | Owns and operates its own network |
| Virgin Mobile | Sprint |
Why Locate the Closest Tower?
Remember, lots of factors affect cell phone signal and a cell booster may be the easiest, most cost-effective way to improve cell phone signal. Choosing the right service provider is just the first step in preventing reception problems. Switching carriers may not resolve the problems you’re experiencing. Boost your signal with PRO-CELL and save yourself the cost of switching to another provider.
