With the launch of next-generation 5G wireless networks becoming a reality, more and more cell towers are being built every day. No matter which smartphone you prefer or which carrier you subscribe to, location matters when it comes to cell reception. 

When you’re too far away from your carrier’s tower, it can be difficult to get a strong enough signal to support voice and data functions on your phone. If you’re not getting the signal performance you expect, then you may want to see if there’s a cell phone tower near you.

Finding the closest cell phone tower in your neighborhood, to your rural home, or even on the go doesn’t have to be a difficult task. It all starts by familiarizing yourself with some helpful, easy-to-use, free resources for locating cell towers that can be found online. 

Check out the guide below to learn how to locate a cell phone tower near you.

How Close Does a Cell Phone Tower Need to Be?

Cell phones work based on signals from towers. Your signal will be stronger and less distorted the closer you are to the tower, which means the connection you get for voice and data will be better. But you don’t have to live right next to a cell phone tower to get good signal.

While most cell phones are capable of receiving signal from a tower as far away as 45 miles, you won’t always get a tenable signal from that far away. In some cases, the landscape, buildings, or other obstacles can reduce the efficacy of a signal over distance — making it too weak to do much good once it hits your phone. In other situations, the technology of the network or other details can reduce how far the signal travels. 

---

3 Quick Ways to Find Cell Towers Near You

1. Use a Website to Locate Cell Phone Towers on a Map

When it comes to knowing the location of the closest cell tower and which direction your signal is coming from, nothing is more handy or intuitive than a cell phone tower map.

A number of websites let you enter some basic information and see a map of cell towers in your area. To use the maps, you’ll need to locate familiar landmarks and major roads to figure out where you are in relation to various cell towers, but this is no different from looking up the nearest burger joints on Google Maps. You don’t get an actual street address, but you can usually figure out whether there are viable cell phone towers near you. 

Here are a few sites to try in your cell phone tower search:

CellMapper 

(Image credit: CellMapper.net)

This cell tower locator is our favorite for its intuitive interface and various filtering options. CellMapper lets you filter by provider and service type before searching for towers near your address or location. To use this, scroll through to find your country, choose your cell provider, select your network speed, and enter an address or zip code and you’ll quickly see the closest cell towers.

SCADACore

(Image credit: SCADACore.com)

This site provides a map of cell towers in the United States and lets you drill down by clicking on your location or entering coordinates via latitude and longitude. The data is sourced from the FCC website. Just zoom in on the map to where you are located to see the nearest tower.

CellReception

(Image credit: CellReception.com)

This site allows you to find a list of all cell phone towers registered with the FCC in a specific city. You can narrow the results by carrier and also read user ratings to learn how other cell phone users are faring with signal in the area. If a cell phone tower is registered with the FCC, it can be easily found on the Towers page. Just enter the city and state or zip code for your search and click “Go.”

AntennaSearch

(Image credit: AntennaSearch.com)

Gaining quick access to a comprehensive list of every cell phone tower within a three-mile radius of your location begins with entering a street address into the site’s search engine. Plotted on Google Maps, exact addresses are given for registered cell towers — along with details on the tower’s height, date of construction, and its owner. This site has extensive information, but the design is outdated and not intuitive for the average user.

2. Check the Coverage Map for Your Cell Service Provider

Your carrier itself may provide some information about cell phone tower locations or at least where coverage is supposed to be supported. These maps can help you see if you’re not getting a good signal because your area isn’t covered. As you might guess, each of the major telecom providers offers online access to their own interactive coverage maps.

Here’s a look at coverage maps for each of the major carriers. 

Verizon Cell Towers

(Image credit: Verizon.com)

Rather than showing cell phone tower locations, Verizon provides a color-coded coverage map to help you understand if you’re supposed to get service in a specific area. informs users of the coverage type and signal quality that you can expect based on the mapped address you put in the search bar (e.g. 4G LTE Quality: Excellent). 

To learn more about how to interact with their cell tower map read more here.

AT&T Cell Towers

(Image credit: ATT.com)

AT&T provides a similar map and features approximate wireless voice coverage for your mapped address, including third-party coverage. You can zoom in on specific locations for even more information. You can also search by your current location. You’ll see that types of coverage are color-coded on the map.

T-Mobile Cell Towers

(Image credit: T-Mobile.com)

T-Mobile’s interactive map allows you to compare the coverage and signal strength for your address against what you can expect from the other major carriers. They also have a cell tower search where you can enter in your address and locate the nearest cell tower. Sprint is now a part of T-Mobile, but it still has its own dedicated coverage map.

Note: If you’re signed on with another carrier, you may be able to find a map or other information about coverage and towers on its site.

3. Use a Smartphone App to Locate a Tower

You can also download cell phone tower location apps on smartphones. This lets you locate a cell tower near you no matter where you are, which can be convenient for people who travel a lot. If you want a quick resource for locating cell phone towers near your house, consider downloading a cell tower finder app. No matter what you’re looking for in a cell tower locator app, chances are the App Store or Google Play has one that fits your needs.

Here are some popular apps for locating nearby cell phone towers:

OpenSignal App

The OpenSignal app, available for iPhone and Android, provides coverage maps for all major networks based on data crowdsourced from users. The app helps you see 2G, 3G, and 4G network availability (along with stats and speeds experienced on networks worldwide) to help accurately measure the everyday experience you can expect on your cellular device.

Watch our video below to learn how to use this app to find cell towers.

https://youtu.be/MINBywFZrQw

Network Cell Info Lite

Network Cell Info Lite is exclusive to Android users but is one of the most highly-rated cell tower locator apps in Google Play. This app shows you cell tower locations based on their database so you can easily track signal strength in a specific area. This app can monitor WiFi and cell signal in real-time and show you maps with network cellular info and signal-meter gauges.

Cell Tower Locator

Cell Tower Locator app is only available for Android and provides approximate locations of towers based on database information. The app’s interface provides cell IDs, signal strength, and GPS location. According to the developers of Cell Tower Locator, the precision of the estimated cell position is better for sites with three cells detected. If only one cell is visible it’s likely a cell serving area, not a position.

Cellular Network Signal Finder

Simply download this app, which is available for iPhones, and allow it to use your current location to find nearby cell phone towers. One downside of this app is that you can’t filter by your preferred service provider.

Covered

If you’re curious about how fast your cell phone connection is where you live, work, or visit, anywhere in the U.S., check out the Coverage app. This handy tool lets you view the average download and upload speed for each of the major wireless carriers. 

---

How Can You Find 5G Towers Near You?

If you’re looking for 5G coverage, then you need to locate specific towers. These towers aren’t available in all locations, and you might wonder if one has been installed near your home. If there is a nearby 5G tower and your devices are 5G-capable, then you might expect faster speeds for data downloads and other perks when it comes to performance.

You can discover where the 5G networks and towers are for your carrier by consulting its 5G coverage map. Simply use the links above for the carrier coverage maps and specify 5G coverage when searching.

Locating a tower and knowing you have one within range is only a first step. If you’re still getting weak signal, it can mean the nearest tower to you still isn’t close enough. But if you’re getting any signal at all from that tower, there’s hope.

A cell phone signal booster might help. A signal booster is an amplifier. It takes the existing signal coming into your location — even if it’s very weak because it has traveled from a distant tower or had to contend with natural or man-made barriers — and boosts it. That helps ensure your cell phone is able to connect to a strong signal, which improves voice and data performance. 

The amplification can help you connect and make calls when you weren’t able to before or reduce drops and other interruptions. It can also help improve overall quality and clarity of calls and ensure you can upload and download data. Better data means you get texts and emails when you’re supposed to and can access the internet and use internet-based apps.

Check out the full line of weBoost cell phone boosters for your home to help ensure better coverage for you and your family. Or if you get great service and coverage at home but it’s lackluster as you travel around your city or out of state, consider investing in a booster for your vehicle.