Why
did you set up a website about mobile phone antennas?
Basically
the website was set up in the mid to late 1990’s when the first major round of site
building / GSM network rollout was taking place, not just in cities but on greenfield
sites in rural UK. I was intrigued at new sites going up in my (rural) area and wanted to
identify who was doing the building. So initially the photos were about showing the
different operators sites by type. However as sites became more inventive (camoflaged,
tree sites, lampost, micro-sites etc), the website has become more about showing these
sites of particular interest. It is rare for the network operators or their
contractors to publish such photos themselves.
You
must have no life setting up a site about this subject!
I
think it serves a purpose and covers plenty of material that is not available elsewhere on
the net. The site is mostly complete and in fact does not take up much of my time.
I’m not just interested in mobile phones!
Do
you buy or sell phones? Are you interested in buying X,Y or Z that I have?
I do not
buy or sell phones, nor do I provide advice on buying. I'd suggest that you try Ebay if
you wish to sell something.
Which is your favourite network (UK)?
My
favourite network personally is Vodafone as I think they have the best UK network in terms
of UK-wide coverage, capacity, reliability. The customer service is also very good.
Greatest number of overseas roaming agreements. Only network to provide an answering
bureau. I’d like them even more if they provided a signal in my home village in
Somerset (Hint hint!). People might say that they are possibly not the cheapest network
but then you usually have to pay for quality. I also use O2 for personal use, and Orange
(work phone).
Having
said this, my website tries to be un-biased towards any one network - some websites I've
visited that are set up by individuals are blatantly in praise towards one network, for
instance the Orange network has it's particular fans and that is fine, but I try and avoid
this sort of bias on my website.
Which
is your least favourite network (UK)?
The
fact that the UK is such a competitive market, and there is only about 2 million customers
difference now between the most popular and least popular networks, indicates that none of
the networks are bad at what they do – I don’t think they can afford to be. I
think all have their strengths and weaknesses and different people inevitably can have
good or bad experiences to report.
What
type of phone do you suggest I buy on which network?
Choice
of phone and network depends on what you plan to use the phone for, what time of day, what
functions you need that are provided on the handset or by the network, quality of network
coverage at the locations important to you (work, college, home etc). What’s right
for someone else may not be right for you. The Hairydog site for mobile phones says to
ignore ‘lifestyle’ type advertising which I would like to repeat here as good
advice. But as stated above I do not provide individual advice on buying.
Does this site mean that you’re in favour of mobile phone
antennas/towers being put up, for instance even in rural areas or areas where they may be
a potential health risk (schools etc)?
This
website is not either representing a pro or anti view about mobile phone sites being put
up, it’s simply to show what is happening on the ground. I’m not running a
debate site on the subject. I think it may be true to say that some people may want the
benefits of good mobile reception without the towers and antennas on buildings –
however you can’t have the former without the latter. There is always going to
be good and bad practice in terms of considerate siting of antennas for minimum visual and
environmental impact (whether UK or abroad).
In terms of
health issues, mobile phone antennas radiate non-ionising radiation (ie it is not
radio-active, it just has a heating effect) at only a few watts (usually less than the
power from a light bulb). My personal opinion (and this is an opinion, not a statement,
upon which you should place no reliance, or base any personal / business / governmental
decisions on, and should not be taken to be a legally binding representation!), is that
mobile phones and mobile phone antennas do not represent a general health risk to the
public.
Can I use some of your material for a company training course / presentation
/ student project etc?
Please
write to me first. All use of material must be credited to me by name in the document /
presentation that you use them in. But please write to me first!
Can
you help me with my student project?
No
you have to work on your own project without my assistance. Apart from the fact I do
not have the time, you should be doing the work yourself!
Can you send me a
complete list of UK base station locations / cell ID's for Orange/O2/Vodafone/T Mobile/3?
No
such lists exist in the public domain. I don’t have any list. This is commercially
sensitive information for the networks which they don’t publish on the websites. O2
did for a while show the approximate locations of their base stations on their coverage
maps, at webmap.02.co.uk, the only network to do so, but have removed this feature.
There
is however the sitefinder.radio.gov.uk government-run website which was set up in response
to concerns about mobile phones and health. This shows the locations on a map of all the
networks live base stations (not planned or in-build sites), although you have to zoom in
quite far before the sites for a particular locality become visible. See the links page
for the address. It only shows GSM, 3G and Tetra, but not other types of transmitter such
as PMR, paging, or broadcast transmitters.
Can
I send you some base station photos?
Sure, as
long as they’re of interest to the site. They should be compressed JPEGS (50k or
less), sent one per email. Write to me via the on-line response form first before sending
anything. As you can see from the website some of the best photos have come from
contributors, or at least the location of a site of interest has been provided by a
reader. There isn’t much capacity left on the site so I’ll have to be selective
about future content. I can't pay for any content sent to me. By sending them you are
giving me permission to publish them on the site.
If you've seen a site
of particular interest in your area but can't send photos then please send me a
description and location and depending on the situation I may be able to get some photos
of it for the site.
What is your email address?
I don’t any longer publish this on the website due to spamming. Write to
me via the on-line response form and I will respond by email. I try and respond to most
queries but cannot promise a reply to every message.
A
new site has appeared in my area/neighbourhood/end of my garden and I want to know who
owns it or what it is used for but can't identify it - can you tell me what it is?
You're welcome
to send me a photo (no more than 50k in size, 1 per email), and I can try and identify it
for you by type - but no guarantees that this will be possible. Sites should however be
clearly labelled by operator and with contact details (and planning notice, when they
first go up).
Have you appeared in the media? / would you be willing to
appear in our up-coming TV/radio documentary / news programme / newspaper?
I have previously turned down offers to appear in the media, including
Channel 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, amongst others. Reason being that I'm concerned about
being mis-represented. I have no plans to change this policy of not accepting media
invitations.
Has
anyone ever written to you from the UK mobile networks about your website?
I
think at one time or other I have heard from all the networks except Orange and
‘3’. I do know that the networks keep an occasional eye on my site. Some people
have been very helpful and I’m grateful for them writing to me with information or
just to say they found the website of interest. I’m always careful not to publish any
information without specific permission, or publish stuff that may be commercially
sensitive. I always welcome people writing to correct inaccuracies – often I can make
an educated guess but there’s nothing like inside knowledge.
There is
some incorrect information on your site - you've got it wrong.
As above you're
welcome to write and correct any errors on the site, if you know something to be
incorrect.
Have you ever been accosted for taking photos of sites?
Fortunately
I can say no here. But then I avoid disturbing engineers at work, I don’t touch
anything or enter enclosures, disturb crops/livestock, or leave anything (except
footprints possibly). I have occasionally encountered curious locals at some sites
wondering just what I’m up to. The most memorable incident was a kid on a bike who
followed me from my car by the main road about a mile upto a site on the edge of a
Wiltshire village, and back again. For some reason I think he was quite convinced I was a
crook and that it was his responsibility to keep an eye on me until I had left the
vicinity.
Some of the sections of the website are a
bit out of date?
In
recent years due to constraints on my time I’ve rather changed the focus of the site
and concentrated on the base station photos as it’s got the most opportunity for
original content.
What are your absolute favourite base station sites?
I
think they have to be the O2 dead tree site, which a visitor sent me a photo of, and the T
Mobile mini tree (Leyandii type), which I was sent the location of. The brown telegraph
pole sites used by Orange, T Mobile and O2 are good as well. Overall for the standard
sites, I probably prefer Vodafone’s sites as they’re usually well sited and they
usually try to avoid them being too conspicuous (painted green etc).
What
do you think of 3G?
Difficult
to say as I’ve never used a 3G handset. I would say that it will be good for fast
data transfer / internet browsing, and also clearer voice calls. GSM was always intended
to be a robust transmission system for passing voice calls – but digital voice codecs
have moved on since then. I remain to be convinced about the benefits of 3G video calling.
I think good handover within handsets between 2G (GSM) and 3G networks will be crucial.
I’m not sure, due to the higher frequencies used by 3G, whether 3G will ever attain
the level and depth of coverage that GSM currently enjoys, in the UK and around the world.
Therefore I think there will be a need in the long term, even when the networks have fully
launched 3G, to fall back on GSM. Hopefully this will not be noticeable to most phone
users. For this reason, and the fact that inevitably there are still GSM coverage 'holes',
I welcome the fact that the UK networks are still expanding their GSM coverage, in
addition to building out 3G, initially mostly in urban areas and along main roads.
What is your favourite type of handset?
Myself and
relatives have had different types of handset such as Motorola, Ericsson and Nokia. Having
initially used Motorola, I switched to Nokia about 5 years ago and I wouldn’t
consider using any other manufacturer’s handset now. Personal opinion but I think
Nokia are the best.
What do you intend to add to this site in the future?
Don’t know! But hope to add more 3G photos.
Are there any other sites you can recommend?
I
really liked the cellsites.co.uk website run by Cam and Nick but that seems to have gone
off the air now. It perhaps had the humour my base station website lacked (respect guys!).
The mb21.co.uk website run by Mike Brown about broadcast sites is one of my favourites on
this particular subject.
Mike
Pratt, April 2004. |