Trees vs. distance
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 12:37 pm
Howdy, everyone. Short-time listener, first-time caller with a question that's mostly about signal attenuation.
Rural internet on a mountainside. I have two main choices of LTE towers. Both towers are reported to have more than sufficient bandwidth on cellmapper (I need 10-15MBit/s sustained down, 2-5Mbit/sec sustained up, and 300-400G/month.). We get snow, we get rain, we get Canadian geese.
I can try a TMO B71 cell (cellmapper max -58dBm) directly up the mountain & pointed at me through 1/2 mile of tree trunks (trunks closest to me) and then 1/4 mile of treetops/road clearing. No gear on-hand to try this B71 tower just now.
I can hit a VZW B13 cell (cellmapper max -73dBm ) across the valley pointed right at me through 1/4 mile of treetops (treetops closest to me) and 7 miles of valley. My VZW phone made 12Mbit/s down from this tower standing on the property with 2 bars service.
I imagine choice of plan providers and hardware is academic once I figure out which tower I should try. (Obviously I want to be able to lock to particular frequency bands and cell IDs, if I can). My question is should I be trying the TMO B71 tower through 1/2 mile of treetrunks + 1/4mi treetops, or that VZW B13 tower across 7 miles of valley + 1/4mi treetops?
Thanks!
Rural internet on a mountainside. I have two main choices of LTE towers. Both towers are reported to have more than sufficient bandwidth on cellmapper (I need 10-15MBit/s sustained down, 2-5Mbit/sec sustained up, and 300-400G/month.). We get snow, we get rain, we get Canadian geese.
I can try a TMO B71 cell (cellmapper max -58dBm) directly up the mountain & pointed at me through 1/2 mile of tree trunks (trunks closest to me) and then 1/4 mile of treetops/road clearing. No gear on-hand to try this B71 tower just now.
I can hit a VZW B13 cell (cellmapper max -73dBm ) across the valley pointed right at me through 1/4 mile of treetops (treetops closest to me) and 7 miles of valley. My VZW phone made 12Mbit/s down from this tower standing on the property with 2 bars service.
I imagine choice of plan providers and hardware is academic once I figure out which tower I should try. (Obviously I want to be able to lock to particular frequency bands and cell IDs, if I can). My question is should I be trying the TMO B71 tower through 1/2 mile of treetrunks + 1/4mi treetops, or that VZW B13 tower across 7 miles of valley + 1/4mi treetops?
Thanks!