topic Re: Cell tower data for USA? in Telecommunications Questions

Cell tower data for USA?

JayJohnsonWashoeCounty — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:41:31 GMT

I'm looking for cell tower data - anyone know of a source, free or pay? The FCC has a database, but it only contains a tiny subset of the cell towers, as apparently not all towers are required to register.

Thanks.

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JakeSkinner — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:43:40 GMT

Hi Jay,

The Living Atlas offers a feature service you can use:

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=15dabb4108254481b591018be2598f3c#overview

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JayJohnsonWashoeCounty — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:57:17 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply Jake. I found that same data on the HIFLD Open Data site, but this can't be anything close to all the cell towers. Washoe County, NV only shows 22 cell towers in this data set. I don't know much about telco data, so there is likely something I'm not understanding, but I would have thought we'd have thousands of cell towers. Do you have any insight on this?

Jay

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JakeSkinner — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 16:41:19 GMT

It may be worth reaching out to HIFLD. This is at the bottom of the item details of that service:

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JayJohnsonWashoeCounty — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 17:17:14 GMT

Yes, I've already done that and HIFLD has referred the question to the FCC. Waiting for their reply.

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

SpatialNinja — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:11:13 GMT

Here is another open source location: http://wiki.opencellid.org/wiki/What_is_OpenCellID

There are some 'pay for' services out there as well.

ShareTracker

Mosaik

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JoeBorgione — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:17:16 GMT

When I worked in 9-1-1, the msag provider had cell tower locations and antenna types for our area of operation.

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JayJohnsonWashoeCounty — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:21:56 GMT

Interesting, thanks Patrick.

I've been able to work with my local E911 Dispatch center and they have been requesting Excel files from all the different carriers. Seems a rather old-school way to gather data, but it is getting the job done.

I've signed up for the OpenCellID asite and it will be interesting to see how their data compares.

Jay

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JoeBorgione — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:31:00 GMT

The msag provider I worked with only gave data out in spreadsheets. I even had 'data bases' faxed to me. Old school? Yeah, you could say that!

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JayJohnsonWashoeCounty — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:55:56 GMT

Thanks for sharing that! Yeah, my data is coming in as spreadsheets (the devil's database). Your "faxed database" gave me a chuckle. It is funny how certain sectors of industry seem to be frozen in 1976!

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

Anonymous User — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:17:35 GMT

My sources within the cell tower property management community tell me that accurate information on cell towers, their precise locations, and especially the parcel data associated, is the holy grail of the industry, and accurate, complete data is not to be had nationwide. The telco's themselves somehow manage to lose track, which is one of the reasons they farm out to management companies. Worse yet, where you can find coordinates, you'll also find that the bulk of them are wildly inaccurate, oftentimes not falling on the correct parcels. If you lay the FCC data on an imagery basemap and look closely, you'll see what I mean. Unless someone can come up with something like a spectral signature (or maybe LiDAR?) to pinpoint cell towers in imagery, and an algorithm to associate those with the nearest FCC coordinates, I don't know how you'd automate georeferencing anyone's data.

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JayJohnsonWashoeCounty — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:28:01 GMT

Paul,

It does rather boggle the mind that a dataset that is the backbone of so much of our modern world's commerce and communication infrastructure is so piecemeal. Our Dispatch Center ended up getting spreadsheets from various contractors for each of the major telco carriers, which I've brought into GIS for our analysis purposes. And yes, dealing with this data is just as problematic as you might expect (horrendous field names, no standard schema, and generally bewildering IDs).

Fortunately our project doesn't require parcel level accuracy, but I do like your idea of a LIDAR analysis to validate location data...

Jay

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

JoeBorgione — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:00:42 GMT

....the telco's themselves somehow manage to lose track, which is one of the reasons they farm out to management companies....

Not defending the telcos but rather explaining them: their primary mission is to provide dial tone. Period. They do not provide any qa/qc on locations of facilities or even addresses of customers. In the days of e-911 and land lines, if you told your provider you live at 666 S Devils Ln but really live at 1234 Elm ST, guess what? They believe you and 666 S Devils Ln is where the cops, fire, and ems are going.

Lets ratchet things up a bit: fewer land lines and more cell phones. Old habits die hard...

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

PaulGiers2 — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:24:13 GMT

Don’t know if there’s is still interest in this topic, but I created an ArcGIS Online app for manual ground-truthing and correction of tower locations using aerial imagery, parcel data, and a street view widget that makes the process as fast and easy as possible, without requiring GIS expertise. Used it to map about 6,000 towers in Florida from the FCC list to the parcel level at a rate of 30/minute, with the help of family members. I also developed a novel technique for extracting highway assets from LiDAR point clouds that may have some application here. See:

https://community.esri.com/t5/roads-and-highways-videos/asset-extraction-from-mobile-lidar-video-1/td-p/976779

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

DavidWard4 — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 13:49:32 GMT

See www.TowerMaps.com This bottom up data source has been built up over 20 years from site owners, not FCC

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

PaulGiers2 — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 15:34:10 GMT

I’d be interested in ‘ground-truthing’ your tower locations with aerial imagery, unless they already include parcel info.

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

DavidWard4 — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 11:11:56 GMT

Name a location and send a request for sample data via email to info@towermaps.com

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

DawnDellsperger — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 01:40:05 GMT

Hi, I just came across this and was wondering if u ever found out about any tower information and where to get it. I have been trying for months to find certain information. It is "public information" yet not so "public" to find it. LOL ideas?

Re: Cell tower data for USA?

DavidWard4 — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 09:47:47 GMT

Tower Maps is a commercial data product (www.towermaps.com), not free.