MTS coverage area map. Cell towers

MTS coverage map

To provide quality services to subscribers, MTS has created a modern telecommunications infrastructure, including its own mobile networks and services available to subscribers.

MTS coverage area

Currently, the operator offers a whole range of telecommunications services based on three main standards. A map of MTS coverage in the capital and regions is posted on this page, including the zones:

• 2G – cellular telephone communications;
• 3G – telephone communications and services, including conference calls, voice mail, access to multimedia and the Internet at a limited speed;
• 4G (LTE) – Internet, access to multimedia and various communication services, TV, video, video communication without speed limits.

Currently, MTS has deployed a serious technical infrastructure that allows it to receive various communication services while meeting the requirements for reliability, security, confidentiality and signal stability. Work continues on services that will be available to subscribers in the near future.

The proposed coverage map will help determine whether your geographic location falls within the MTS coverage area. At the same time, keep in mind that the Internet speed will be higher if you move no faster than 12 km per hour (namely, on foot or on a bicycle), slower if you are in a car. When moving between coverage areas of Moscow and other regions, seamless switching is carried out, invisible to the subscriber.

To use 4G (LTE), you need a special USIM SIM card and a device that supports LTE.

MTS coverage map in Moscow

MTS is one of 4 companies that is developing the 4G standard in Russia and has dual-band frequencies for these purposes. Almost all major cities in Russia already provide full coverage for all MTS telephony standards, including 4G. In terms of coverage area, LTE is available not only in the terrestrial segment, but also in the metro and underground garages - below is the MTS 2017 coverage map. With MTS you can use one of the most modern and expensive engineering infrastructures in the field of telecommunications with many integrated services.

In Moscow and the Moscow region, due to the heavy load on communication networks, backup channels have been deployed that support a high level of communication and are flexibly configured to serve all subscribers in the coverage area. If 3G completely covers the capital, then the MTS 4G LTE coverage map, as for a developing standard, has areas of uncertain reception. This information will be useful to you if you want to install a modem for Internet access at home and need to check zones.

MTS coverage area in Russia

Many subscribers connect to MTS because they know that this company provides the largest reception area in Russia. You will have MTS communications available almost anywhere in the country. If you want to make sure of this, use the MTS coverage map in Russia. When doing so, pay attention to the communications standards you typically use and the availability of services where you travel. A current coverage map for MTS in Crimea is available on the website, which will be useful for residents of the peninsula to assess the available signal in their area of ​​residence.

Internet speed test from MTS

Subscribers often complain about the insufficient speed of Internet access from MTS. Typically, this may depend on a number of factors:

• you are not connected to the 4G standard;
• you are in an area of ​​​​uncertain 4G reception or there is significant interference at the access point;
• The device does not provide reliable signal reception, provided it is in the coverage area.

Each MTS subscriber, purchasing a range of services, first of all, gets access to high-quality communications. For this reason, if your mobile device works well and you are in the required coverage area, you should have normal access to telecommunications services and the Internet, incl.

If this does not happen, you need to record the facts of a decrease in speed by first checking your location in the area of ​​reliable reception, and then conduct an Internet speed test from MTS.

How to do an Internet speed test from MTS?

You can check your Internet speed using a number of Internet resources. The provider does not offer its own web service, but subscribers can use a mobile application or provide data from third-party services. What you need to do for this:

• this can be done from the site http://pr-cy.ru/speed_test_internet/ or the site http://www.speedtest.net/ru/
• when you log in, you will see information about the access point in the form of a table;
• run a speed test;
• write down the data and check it with the provision agreement; if you receive access in 4G format, the speed must be at least 112 Mbit/s (outgoing and incoming traffic has different speeds), check for more detailed information on the provider’s website or at an MTS store.

And again, some general educational material. This time we will talk about base stations. Let's look at various technical aspects regarding their placement, design and range, and also look inside the antenna unit itself.

Base stations. General information

This is what cellular antennas look like installed on the roofs of buildings. These antennas are an element of a base station (BS), and specifically a device for receiving and transmitting a radio signal from one subscriber to another, and then through an amplifier to the base station controller and other devices. Being the most visible part of the BS, they are installed on antenna masts, roofs of residential and industrial buildings, and even chimneys. Today you can find more exotic options for their installation; in Russia they are already installed on lighting poles, and in Egypt they are even “disguised” as palm trees.

The connection of the base station to the telecom operator’s network can be done via radio relay communication, so next to the “rectangular” antennas of the BS units you can see a radio relay dish:

With the transition to more modern standards of the fourth and fifth generations, to meet their requirements, stations will need to be connected exclusively via fiber optics. In modern BS designs, optical fiber becomes an integral medium for transmitting information even between nodes and blocks of the BS itself. For example, the figure below shows the design of a modern base station, where fiber optic cable is used to transmit data from the RRU (remote controlled units) antenna to the base station itself (shown in orange).

The base station equipment is located in non-residential premises of the building, or installed in specialized containers (attached to walls or poles), because modern equipment is quite compact and can easily fit into the system unit of a server computer. Often the radio module is installed next to the antenna unit, this helps reduce losses and dissipation of power transmitted to the antenna. This is what the three installed radio modules of the Flexi Multiradio base station equipment look like, mounted directly on the mast:

Base station service area

To begin with, it should be noted that there are different types of base stations: macro, micro, pico and femtocells. Let's start small. And, in short, a femtocell is not a base station. It is rather an Access Point. This equipment is initially aimed at a home or office user and the owner of such equipment is a private or legal entity. a person other than the operator. The main difference between such equipment is that it has a fully automatic configuration, from assessing radio parameters to connecting to the operator’s network. Femtocell has the dimensions of a home router:

A picocell is a low-power BS owned by an operator and using IP/Ethernet as a transport network. Usually installed in places where there is a possible local concentration of users. The device is comparable in size to a small laptop:

A microcell is an approximate version of the implementation of a base station in a compact form, very common in operator networks. It is distinguished from a “large” base station by a reduced capacity supported by the subscriber and lower radiating power. Weight, as a rule, is up to 50 kg and radio coverage radius is up to 5 km. This solution is used where high network capacities and power are not needed, or where it is not possible to install a large station:

And finally, a macro cell is a standard base station on the basis of which mobile networks are built. It is characterized by powers of the order of 50 W and a coverage radius of up to 100 km (in the limit). The weight of the stand can reach 300 kg.

The coverage area of ​​each BS depends on the height of the antenna section, the terrain and the number of obstacles on the way to the subscriber. When installing a base station, the coverage radius is not always brought to the fore. As the subscriber base grows, the maximum throughput of the BS may not be enough, in which case the message “network busy” appears on the phone screen. Then, over time, the operator in this area can deliberately reduce the range of the base station and install several additional stations in areas of greatest load.

When you need to increase network capacity and reduce the load on individual base stations, then microcells come to the rescue. In a megacity, the radio coverage area of ​​one microcell can be only 500 meters.

In a city environment, oddly enough, there are places where the operator needs to locally connect an area with a lot of traffic (metro station areas, large central streets, etc.). In this case, low-power microcells and picocells are used, the antenna units of which can be placed on low buildings and on street lighting poles. When the question arises of organizing high-quality radio coverage inside closed buildings (shopping and business centers, hypermarkets, etc.), then picocell base stations come to the rescue.

Outside cities, the operating range of individual base stations comes to the fore, so the installation of each base station away from the city is becoming an increasingly expensive enterprise due to the need to build power lines, roads and towers in difficult climatic and technological conditions. To increase the coverage area, it is advisable to install the BS on higher masts, use directional sector emitters, and lower frequencies that are less susceptible to attenuation.

So, for example, in the 1800 MHz band, the range of the BS does not exceed 6-7 kilometers, and in the case of using the 900 MHz band, the coverage area can reach 32 kilometers, all other things being equal.

Base station antennas. Let's take a look inside

In cellular communications, sector panel antennas are most often used, which have a radiation pattern with a width of 120, 90, 60 and 30 degrees. Accordingly, to organize communication in all directions (from 0 to 360), 3 (pattern width 120 degrees) or 6 (pattern width 60 degrees) antenna units may be required. An example of organizing uniform coverage in all directions is shown in the figure below:

And below is a view of typical radiation patterns on a logarithmic scale.

Most base station antennas are broadband, allowing operation in one, two or three frequency bands. Starting with UMTS networks, unlike GSM, base station antennas are able to change the radio coverage area depending on the load on the network. One of the most effective methods of controlling radiated power is to control the angle of the antenna, in this way the irradiation area of ​​the radiation pattern changes.

Antennas can have a fixed tilt angle, or can be remotely adjusted using special software located in the BS control unit and built-in phase shifters. There are also solutions that allow you to change the service area from the general data network management system. In this way, it is possible to regulate the service area of ​​the entire sector of the base station.

Base station antennas use both mechanical and electrical pattern control. Mechanical control is easier to implement, but often leads to distortion of the radiation pattern due to the influence of structural parts. Most BS antennas have an electrical tilt angle adjustment system.

A modern antenna unit is a group of radiating elements of an antenna array. The distance between the array elements is selected in such a way as to obtain the lowest level of side lobes of the radiation pattern. The most common panel antenna lengths are from 0.7 to 2.6 meters (for multi-band antenna panels). The gain varies from 12 to 20 dBi.

The figure below (left) shows the design of one of the most common (but already outdated) antenna panels.

Here, the antenna panel emitters are half-wave symmetrical electric vibrators above the conductive screen, located at an angle of 45 degrees. This design allows you to create a diagram with a main lobe width of 65 or 90 degrees. In this design, dual- and even tri-band antenna units are produced (though quite large). For example, a tri-band antenna panel of this design (900, 1800, 2100 MHz) differs from a single-band one, being approximately twice as large in size and weight, which, of course, makes it difficult to maintain.

An alternative manufacturing technology for such antennas involves making strip antenna radiators (square-shaped metal plates), in the figure above on the right.

And here is another option, when half-wave slot magnetic vibrators are used as a radiator. The power line, slots and screen are made on one printed circuit board with double-sided foil fiberglass:

Taking into account the modern realities of the development of wireless technologies, base stations must support 2G, 3G and LTE networks. And if control units of base stations of networks of different generations can be placed in one switching cabinet without increasing the overall size, then significant difficulties arise with the antenna part.

For example, in multi-band antenna panels the number of coaxial connecting lines reaches 100 meters! Such a significant cable length and the number of soldered connections inevitably leads to line losses and a decrease in gain:

In order to reduce electrical losses and reduce solder points, microstrip lines are often made; this makes it possible to create dipoles and the power supply system for the entire antenna using a single printed technology. This technology is easy to manufacture and ensures high repeatability of antenna characteristics during serial production.

Multiband antennas

With the development of third and fourth generation communication networks, modernization of the antenna part of both base stations and cell phones is required. Antennas must operate in new additional bands exceeding 2.2 GHz. Moreover, work in two and even three ranges must be carried out simultaneously. As a result, the antenna part includes rather complex electromechanical circuits, which must ensure proper functioning in difficult climatic conditions.

As an example, consider the design of the emitters of a dual-band antenna of a Powerwave cellular communication base station operating in the ranges 824-960 MHz and 1710-2170 MHz. Its appearance is shown in the figure below:

This dual-band irradiator consists of two metal plates. The larger one operates in the lower 900 MHz range; above it there is a plate with a smaller slot emitter. Both antennas are excited by slot emitters and thus have a single power line.

If dipole antennas are used as emitters, then it is necessary to install a separate dipole for each wave range. Individual dipoles must have their own power supply line, which, of course, reduces the overall reliability of the system and increases power consumption. An example of such a design is the Kathrein antenna for the same frequency range as discussed above:

Thus, the dipoles for the lower frequency range are, as it were, inside the dipoles of the upper range.

To implement three- (or more) band operating modes, printed multilayer antennas have the greatest technological effectiveness. In such antennas, each new layer operates in a rather narrow frequency range. This “multi-story” design is made of printed antennas with individual emitters, each antenna is tuned to individual frequencies in the operating range. The design is illustrated in the figure below:

As in any other multi-element antennas, in this design there is interaction between elements operating in different frequency ranges. Of course, this interaction affects the directivity and matching of the antennas, but this interaction can be eliminated by methods used in phased array antennas (phased array antennas). For example, one of the most effective methods is to change the design parameters of the elements by displacing the exciting device, as well as changing the dimensions of the feed itself and the thickness of the dielectric separating layer.

An important point is that all modern wireless technologies are broadband, and the operating frequency bandwidth is at least 0.2 GHz. Antennas based on complementary structures, a typical example of which are “bow-tie” antennas, have a wide operating frequency band. Coordination of such an antenna with the transmission line is carried out by selecting the excitation point and optimizing its configuration. To expand the operating frequency band, by agreement, the “butterfly” is supplemented with a capacitive input impedance.

Modeling and calculation of such antennas are carried out in specialized CAD software packages. Modern programs allow you to simulate an antenna in a translucent housing in the presence of the influence of various structural elements of the antenna system and thereby allow you to perform a fairly accurate engineering analysis.

The design of a multi-band antenna is carried out in stages. First, a microstrip printed antenna with a wide bandwidth is calculated and designed for each operating frequency range separately. Next, printed antennas of different ranges are combined (overlapping each other) and their joint operation is examined, eliminating, if possible, the causes of mutual influence.

A broadband butterfly antenna can be successfully used as the basis for a tri-band printed antenna. The figure below shows four different configuration options.

The above antenna designs differ in the shape of the reactive element, which is used to expand the operating frequency band by agreement. Each layer of such a tri-band antenna is a microstrip emitter of given geometric dimensions. The lower the frequencies, the larger the relative size of such an emitter. Each layer of the PCB is separated from the other by a dielectric. The above design can operate in the GSM 1900 band (1850-1990 MHz) - accepts the bottom layer; WiMAX (2.5 - 2.69 GHz) - receives the middle layer; WiMAX (3.3 - 3.5 GHz) - receives the upper layer. This design of the antenna system will make it possible to receive and transmit radio signals without the use of additional active equipment, thereby not increasing the overall dimensions of the antenna unit.

And in conclusion, a little about the dangers of BS

Sometimes, base stations of cellular operators are installed directly on the roofs of residential buildings, which actually demoralizes some of their inhabitants. Apartment owners stop having cats, and gray hair begins to appear faster on grandma's head. Meanwhile, the residents of this house receive almost no electromagnetic field from the installed base station, because the base station does not radiate “downward.” And, by the way, SaNPiN standards for electromagnetic radiation in the Russian Federation are an order of magnitude lower than in “developed” Western countries, and therefore base stations within the city never operate at full capacity. Thus, there is no harm from BS, unless you sunbathe on the roof a couple of meters away from them. Often, a dozen access points installed in residents' apartments, as well as microwave ovens and cell phones (pressed to the head) have a much greater impact on you than a base station installed 100 meters outside the building.

Introduction

One of the first questions that arises when you are connecting to the mobile Internet is the question of the location of the base station of your chosen operator in order to point your antenna in its direction. It is advisable to find out the exact coordinates of the tower and the terrain before it in order to understand whether it makes sense to use the tower to receive the signal. Services and various Android applications do not provide exact coordinates of the BS, because based on measurements and their mathematical processing. The error can reach several kilometers.

Often, tower coordinates can be determined by studying operator coverage maps, terrain, Google and Yandex maps, as well as the opportunities they provide to view photographs and panoramas of the area being studied. It must be said that the BS cannot always be found on the map. There can be many reasons for this - the maps are outdated, the BS is located on the roof of the building and is simply not visible on the map, the tower is small, etc.

BS parameters are unknown. Kostroma region

Given: coordinates 57.564243, 41.08345, Kuzminka village in the Kostroma region. The task is to determine the exact coordinates of the BS to which you can connect to receive 3 G-signal.

We will consider the search for BS step by step.

Step 1. Analysis of coverage maps.

Let's use a well-known servicehttps://yota-faq.ru/yota-zone-map/ , which presents the coverage areas of four operators, except Beeline. I will note here that the Beeline coverage presented on their website is almost impossible to use - as a rule, it shows continuous coverage that does not take into account the terrain.

The coverage areas of Megafon and MTS look the most interesting from a connection point of view. You can see this for yourself by opening the service, inserting the coordinates into the search bar and switching operators.

Megafon coverage area:

MTS coverage area:

From the analysis of Megafon's coverage area, we see that 3G BS are most likely located in the directions Krasnoye, Sukhonogovo, Lapino (at this scale the Lapino map is not visible, this is the southwest, approximately where the P-600 mark is).

The MTS coverage area is more interesting. Here we also consider the direction to Sukhonogovo and Krasnoe. But Red is a more interesting option, because... there is 4G coverage there. The distance to Krasny is about 10 km, if MTS distributes 4G at a frequency of 1800 MHz, then there is every chance of establishing communication with one of the MTS BSs located in this locality.

Step 2: Study the terrain.

The terrain up to Krasny is difficult, but quite passable. To assess the terrain, we will use the service https://airlink.ubnt.com. If this is your first time on this site, you will first need to go through a free registration procedure. Having opened the service, scroll the slider down to the end and enter the initial data in the lower right corner, as shown in the following figure.

I usually first enter the same coordinates in both windows, and then start moving the purple mark to the points of interest to me, where the BS could presumably be located. In this case, the top right corner of the screen displays the terrain, the line of sight and the approximate size of the Fresnel zone.

For our coordinates we have:

Checking the terrain in other “suspicious” directions showed that the terrain there is much worse. Thus, we decided on the direction and at the same time chose the operator - MTS.

Step 3. Clarifying our choice using the “Communication Quality” service

The service opens at the following address https://geo.minsvyaz.ru. In the search line, set the name of the village Kuzminka, switch the view from 4 windows to single-window mode, scale the map to a convenient size and get for the MTS operator:

We see that our choice is correct, because according to the measurement database of users of this service, Krasnoye actually has good 4G coverage from MTS.

Let's zoom in on this map and see that the most likely location of the tower (or towers) is Sovetskaya and Okruzhnaya streets.

Step 4. Study the area using Google and Yandex maps.

These maps have a useful tool for studying the area - panoramas and photographs of the area. Google maps have much more panoramas of various areas than Yandex, so you have to use Google more often when looking at panoramas. On the other hand, Yandex has more photos taken in different places, in addition, Yandex maps for Russia are usually more relevant. In this regard, you have to use both services. Google maps and services are used here.

So, we found out that we need to consider two streets in Krasnoye in search of BS. Launch Google maps, enter the approximate coordinates of the street. Sovetskaya (or street name) and we get:

Here the street view mode is turned on, the street we need is highlighted in blue on the map. You can get a panorama of the street by clicking the mouse anywhere on the blue line. Moving in this way along the street to the north, at the post office building we find the first BS:

And finally, not far from the intersection of Sovetskaya and Okruzhnaya streets, a third tower is discovered, the highest of those found:

We return to the map and find the shadow of this tower in the place where the photo points:

We mark this place on the map with the mouse and get the exact coordinates of the BS:

Let us summarize some of the results of our research. Using information obtained from coverage area analysis, user measurements of signal strength in the area of ​​interest, and study of the area through photographs and panoramas, we were able to find three base stations and their exact coordinates in a city we had never been to. The question of which operator owns the found BS remains open, because the answer to this requires additional research. The easiest way is to drive along the route and measure the BS parameters using some Android application that displays MNC, MCC and signal strength. Some of these applications are presented.

The parameters of the BS are known. Suburb of Penza

As is known, a number of Android applications, as well as a HiLink modem interface and an MDMA program, can provide BS parameters, with the help of which well-known services and applications can provide approximate BS coordinates, which makes it easier to find specific BS coordinates on maps. Reviews of some of these tools are given in the "" section on the Antex website.

Let's look at a specific example from the forum, the example is based on the topic. User coordinates

Published 04/22/2015 by John

Detecting communication towers is not a criminal activity, but a fairly common task in remote regions and villages where the quality of coverage leaves much to be desired. How can we understand why this post gives better results than that wicket? The following tools and websites can help you navigate.

Of the English-language services, perhaps the best is opensignal.com, where you can select the operator and the required location. The map does not show towers, but does show coverage areas. Among the Russians, I can recommend netmonitor.ru - its database contains a lot of information about operator towers.

Some Android applications are also interesting. For example, OpenSignal displays a map of cell towers and Wi-Fi points (locations with poor connections are also marked on the map), has a built-in compass and a speed checker.

Another interesting utility is Netmonitor. It can monitor GSM and CDMA networks, shows information about signal strength, contains a database of cell towers, supports devices with multiple SIM cards, and can also keep a log in CLF or KLM format.

Please note that Netmonitor has limitations when running on devices from some manufacturers. On Motorola, LG, Samsung, Acer and Huawei smartphones, the list of neighbors may be empty, and on Samsung devices, the signal strength may also not be displayed.

I also recommend the GSM Signal Monitoring application, which allows you to work with GSM, UMTS and LTE networks. It displays the change in signal level on a graph and shows neighboring cells (only in GSM networks). There is a data transfer rate monitor and the ability to track connection status, connection standard, cell and current zone identifiers (LAC/RNC/TAC) and received signal strength level (RSSI, as well as RSRP for LTE).

Knowing the data of the base station, you can access it through the website xinit.ru and obtain information about its location. In large cities, it doesn’t hurt to try to find popular maps with the location of the towers, but you should understand that the towers belong to different operators. Plus, base stations are placed not only on poles, but also on the roofs of houses.