It is very common in the US for government entities to build towers (for water storage or to fill a gap in emergency services 2-way radio coverage) and then lease space to carriers to offset the cost and reduce the number of towers in a area. I'd assume economics before spies if I saw a cell sector on a police tower.
Seeing as companies like Harris build equipment for both running and spying on cell networks, it may make sense for them to offer a tower-mounted system...
And honestly, if they want your cell data they can get it from Room 641A a lot easier than popping up government cell towers all over the nation. On the border, though, it makes more sense to surveil traffic which might not originate from within the US.
Strangely enough, despite all the /stuff/ of cellular infrastructure, on roofs and poles in and around cities, the prevailing idea was that mobile phones communicated via satellite and that all these towers were something to do with TV.
I was conscious back then, and I don't recall this particular misunderstanding. Soon after we wondered "what are those things that are mounted like microwave repeaters but obviously are not microwave repeaters?" someone had figured out they were cell antennas. This was before anyone I knew (except my Uncle Glen) had cell phones.
Hmmm, maybe this misunderstanding was a Kiwi thing.
I assumed that was a tweak of his similar joke about in-flight wifi. And since many in-flight wifi systems use a combination of air-to-ground and satellite, it is going to space and back in a roundabout way.
I used to work in one of the taller buildings in a city. At the top of the building, there was a bunch of cell infrastructure. We were installing some radio equipment in the radio room (the same place AT&T and the others had their stuff), and I noticed two identical locked server boxes. They were very heavy-duty compared to the server cabinets I'm used to. One was marked "FBI" and the other was marked "USMS/DEA" (or something like that).
I couldn't really tell without going through a bunch of ceiling-mounted wires, but I'm pretty sure these were connected to some of the civilian cell infrastructure. There wasn't much else to connect to up there.
I've always been fascinated by this. Apologies if if it is linked somewhere in the article that I missed, but where are the forums where radio enthusiasts share hidden towers they've found?
Not quite what you're looking for, but there is a "Stealth Infrastructure Catalogue" linked after the article, which might serve you as a place to start.
I took a look there(after winding my way through Bumping Borders), it appears to be a PDF containing a nicely formatted list of sightings from various countries. I was hoping for the "busy forums" mentioned in the article, but this is still very interesting. Thanks.
One of your images is 10 MB, it probably doesn't need to be that large while in the middle of an article, maybe a link to the full-size version instead?
I have in fact noticed an impossibly strong AT&T signal at the rainbow bridge. It extends even on the Canadian side. Makes it near impossible to connect easily back to a Canadian carrier like Rogers or Telus. It always seemed a bit strange to me, why US carriers blanketed a tourist area and Canadian ones hadn't.
Often the US sites are actually right on the border - I know where several carriers are sited at the Blaine crossing, and both are within a couple block thereof.
