Proposal:Telecommunications tower

Better destinguish between communication towers and mobile phone base stations
Proposal status:	Abandoned (inactive)
Proposed by:	derstefan
Tagging:	communication:*=yes
Applies to:
Definition:	How to tag communication systems
Statistics:
Rendered as:	different each type
Draft started:	2011-10-06
RFC start:	2012-01-02

Towers with any kind of communication are currently mapped as man_made=antenna, man_made=mast, man_made=communications_tower or simply man_made=tower together with tower_type=communication.

This page describes the tag communication:*=yes.

Key & Value	Element	Comment
communication:mobile_phone=yes		advanced values: gsm, umts, cdma, lte
communication:radio=yes		advanced values: fm, am, dab
communication:television=yes		advanced values: analogue, dvb-t
communication:*=yes		user defined

Let's see how to map a:

Object	Tagging	Element	Comment	Example
telecommunications tower (German: Fernmeldeturm)	man_made=communications_tower communication:radio=yes communication:television=yes		Mainly broadcasting radio and television. Tower is very visible in the landscape.
simple radio or television transmitter	man_made=antenna communication:radio=yes		A broadcast antenna not mounted on top of a concrete tower
mobile phone tower	man_made=mast communication:mobile_phone=yes		Just a simple tower only for a mobile phone base station (BTS)
mobile phone on a roof	communication:mobile_phone=yes		A mobile phone base station (BTS) mounted on top of a house
mobile phone on a water tower	man_made=water_tower communication:mobile_phone=yes		A mobile phone base station (BTS) mounted to a water tower
mobile phone on a chimney	man_made=chimney communication:mobile_phone=yes		A mobile phone base station (BTS) mounted to a chimney

One of the aims is to have a difference in "important" and less important towers. On a good topographical map you want to show big transmitters on mountains or huge telecommunications towers in a big city due to being a great landmark, whereas less noticeable mobile phone base stations may be noise on a topographical map (although still immensely useful for things like wireless positioning). As you can see, a difference between base stations mounted on a tower or just mounted on a roof is made.

Advanced tagging of mobile phone base stations

You can add more information to the base stations, but remember: Only add information you know for sure. Please try to avoid the use of e.g. operator=T-Mobile, use MNC=01 instead.^[1]

If you don't know anything about the base station, simply tag it with communication:mobile_phone=yes.

GSM

UMTS

GSM & UMTS