Morrisville Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - 2013

Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - Town of Morrisville, NC – Adopted July 23, 2013

The 1990’s marked the deployment of the 1900 MHz band Personal Communication Systems (PCS). This second generation (2G) of wireless technology primarily supported a digital signal, which audibly was clearer than the analog signal. The handsets were a fraction of the size of the 1G cell phones and the first handsets provided expanded services such as paging and the ability to send text messaging through the handheld unit. However 2G had some network functionality trade-offs. The technology of 2G included a static free signal but with a higher rate of disconnects or dropped calls thus the deployment of 2G required significantly more base stations for several reasons. First, the propagation signal in 1900 MHz is limited to a 2-4 mile range so the number of required base stations almost tripled just to provide basic 2G coverage in the same geographic area as a 1G service area. Second, the industry was reluctant to share tower space with a competitor and many service providers resisted collocating on the same tower. Third, subscriber base and usage grew rapidly and the industry needed more sites to improve network coverage demands by their customers.

2G Motorola Phone (Image: amazon.com)

2G Nokia Phone (Image: htcevoforum.net)

2G Motorola Phone (Image: superstock.com)

Third and fourth generation (3G and 4G) wireless handsets offer a wide variety of tools and services including access to e-mail, news, music and videos; built in cameras and videos; global positioning services (GPS); internet commerce; and thousands of applications from games to flashlights for downloading onto the handset. These applications require large amounts of bandwidth and service providers continue to

upgrade existing base stations and add additional base stations to improve and increase network capacity. To improve network functionality service providers purchased licenses to operate in the 1700-1800, and 2100-2400 MHz frequencies. The operating footprint is similar to the 1900 MHz footprint and helped to increase bandwidth in smaller geographic areas. With the advances of 4G the service providers are purchasing licenses in the 700 MHz frequencies. The 700 MHz platform has a service area similar to 800 MHz and will allow the service providers to broadcast a larger propagation footprint. The need for additional infrastructure for 3G and 4G is significant nationwide and continuous deployment of new base stations will be necessary as the industry transitions to fifth and sixth

2G Phone (left) 4G Phone (right) (Image: answers.com)

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