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Mast Power
mjdj1689
18-06-2010
Just a few a few questions about mast power, is there much of a difference in phone mast power ? Say when you are in the country you see phone masts at the side of the road but these seem to have only a small generator with them , do these only seem to get out about a mile radius in any direction ? the ones in towns and cities with the big generators how far do these get out ?

Also when you see 2 or 3 generators next to a mast are these to increase the power or is one for 2g and one for 3g ?

What the maximum power and range of one mast.?

Are other countries the same or are their masts a lot more powerful than the uks?

I know there are a lot less 3g masts is this to save money ?
Appleseed
18-06-2010
The boxes you see around the bases of masts are not generators. They house the control gear for the mast, the back up batteries and a seperate one usually houses the electricity meter (the same as you have at home)

All 'remote' masts have a small dish on them, this a microwave relay link via other nearby sites to a local switching site. These sites usually have a small room attached (about the same size as a small bedroom) with racks of 'krone' connectors, an air conditioner and a burglar/fire alarms. These switching sites are in turn connected to mobile exchanges and to the PSTN using high speed links. When I worked for Orange maintenance it was T-1, 1.5Mbit links but there was't any mobile broadband going on then!

Back-up batteries are installed (usually around enough capacity to keep the remote sites working for up to 24 hrs, and the more central switching sites going for up to 36 hrs.
Wiring for a generator is usually in place so that in the event of a prolonged power failure, a generator can be simply taken to site, plugged in and fired up to run the site and recharge the batteries.

The output power of the site (or rather any particular channel being used at that site) is governed by 2 things - your phone and the sites maximum licensed power output.

If you make a call and during that call you move closer to the site (you might be walking or in a car) the site will say to your phone, via a control channel 'you can reduce your output power because you are getting closer to me' (or it might say the opposite if moving away)
It could request the phone change frequency (it might be detecting some interference) or it could contact another cell(via a switching centre) to say 'get ready to take this call from me' when it sees you moving away from it's coverage area.

This swapping of cells during a call is controlled by a central computer. It tells the new cell what frequency to use and when to take over and it tells your phone (via the control channel of the cell you are currently on) when to switch, what frequency to use and what power output to set itself at, all of which is done so quickly and smoothly that you don't notice (unless you remember the old TACS (analogue) days when you were on the move during a call. It got progressively noisier until finally you heard a chirp and the call was perfectly clear again. You knew you'd just changed cells!

Incidentally, the control channel is always transmitting (it's the one that shows on your phone as signal bars and also delivers your text messages)
fmradiotuner1
18-06-2010
Read a few years back people along the some parts of the Kent coast were getting really high charges as their phones were roaming on the French network even though they were in England
Appleseed
18-06-2010
Yes, I heard that was sometimes the case. The only way to prevent it would be to have a roaming bar placed on the phone.
!!11oneone
18-06-2010
That's true, and it's a big problem not on the South Coast (where my wife's phone roamed to France a few times) but on land borders, particularly in Europe.

But imagine living in Northern Ireland - you could easily roam freely to the Eire networks as you approached the border...
Daveoc64
18-06-2010
Originally Posted by Appleseed:
“Yes, I heard that was sometimes the case. The only way to prevent it would be to have a roaming bar placed on the phone.”

It's far simpler than that.

You manually connect to the UK network.

The phone shouldn't try and connect to the foreign network then.

I remember that they had a story about this quite a few years ago on Watchdog, where Orange customers on the UK coast were getting the French Orange network instead.
mjdj1689
18-06-2010
I remember that, does it still happen now thou ?
plymouthbloke1974
18-06-2010
The main issue in this respect with Orange, is that the network names are the same on the phone display.

With Vodafone, you have:

vodafone uk
vodafone ie
vodafone de
vodafone es ..etc...

With Orange, you have:

Orange
Orange
Orange
Orange

So as the display does not change, it can cause confusion....
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