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Telecommunications towers in the United Kingdom are operated mainly by Arqiva. [1] Arqiva operates the transmitters for UK terrestrial TV and most radio broadcasting, both analogue and digital. BT also operates a number of telecommunications towers in the UK.
BT's towers were, at one time, the backbone for a national line-of-sight microwave telecommunications network. One of the most famous of these is the BT Tower in London. However, the introduction of fibre optic network technology rendered these microwave towers largely obsolete for their original purpose. Nowadays they tend to be used mainly for relatively low capacity fixed links to customer sites and mobile telephony.
BT Group owns at least 200 radio masts and towers in Britain. [2] Of these, fourteen are reinforced concrete towers. The rest are of steel lattice construction.
Seven of the fourteen are of similar design, known as the 'Chilterns' type, after the first one which was built at Stokenchurch on the Chiltern Hills. They are identical except for their heights, which vary considerably. They are at:
| Tower | Location | Coordinates | Height | Year of built |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stokenchurch BT Tower | Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire | 51°39′55″N0°55′26″W / 51.665388°N 0.923827°W | 120 m ( 394 ft) | |
| Charwelton BT Tower | Charwelton, Northamptonshire | 52°12′08″N1°15′04″W / 52.202327°N 1.251020°W | 118 m ( 387 ft) | |
| Pye Green BT Tower | Pye Green, Staffordshire | 52°43′43″N2°01′11″W / 52.728687°N 2.019589°W | 96.9 m ( 318 ft) | |
| Wotton-under-Edge BT Tower | Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire | 51°38′58″N2°18′14″W / 51.649319°N 2.304024°W | 76.2 m ( 250 ft) | |
| Heaton Park BT Tower | Manchester | 53°32′23″N2°15′19″W / 53.539611°N 2.255223°W | 72.54 m ( 238 ft) | |
| Sutton Common BT Tower | Macclesfield, Cheshire | 53°12′22″N2°06′03″W / 53.206135°N 2.100711°W | 72 m ( 238 ft) | |
| Tinshill BT Tower | Cookridge area, Leeds, West Yorkshire | 53°51′17″N1°36′43″W / 53.854752°N 1.612009°W | 60.96 m ( 200 ft) |
The other seven are:
| Tower | Location | Coordinates | Height | Year of built |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emley Moor Tower | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire | 53°36′43″N1°39′52″W / 53.612056°N 1.664414°W | 330.5 m ( 1084 ft) | 1970 |
| London BT Tower | London | 51°31′17″N0°08′20″W / 51.5215°N 0.1389°W | 188.4 m ( 618 ft) | 1964 |
| Birmingham BT Tower | Birmingham | 52°29′01″N1°54′15″W / 52.483522°N 1.904278°W | 152 m ( 499 ft) | 1965 |
| Morborne Hill BT Tower | Peterborough, Cambridgeshire | 52°30′27″N0°20′41″W / 52.507618°N 0.344617°W | 98.75 m ( 324 ft) | |
| Purdown BT Tower | Bristol | 51°29′07″N2°33′46″W / 51.485244°N 2.562717°W | 70.1 m ( 230 ft) | 1970 |
| Tolsford Hill BT Tower | Folkestone, Kent | 51°06′27″N1°05′05″E / 51.107467°N 1.084789°E | 67.36 m ( 221 ft) | |
| Turners Hill BT Tower | Dudley, West Midlands | 52°29′47″N2°02′56″W / 52.496438°N 2.049005°W | 60.96 m ( 200 ft) |
Below the level of the major telecommunications towers, mobile phone operators run roughly 23,000 base stations. In urban areas, these are almost all rooftop sites or microcells, but in rural areas these are often on towers, frequently owned by BT or Arqiva. The Sitefinder database is an incomplete list of mobile phone base stations in the UK. [3]
Since the discontinuation of the Ofcom sitefinder website in 2015, Estate Systems Ltd have developed a comprehensive site www.mastdata.com [4] for use by the public and mobile operators (subject to a fee) which locates masts within the UK including Northern Ireland.
Arqiva sold its mast business for telecoms to Cellnex. They no longer operate in this area.
There are also numerous military communications sites in the UK, operated by various wings of the armed forces. Many of the masts and towers at military sites are now marketed to commercial site sharers by Arqiva.
The first UK microwave relay towers were built in about 1952 for a television link between Manchester and Kirk o'Shotts near Glasgow. A chain of 14 towers, known as "Backbone", running from the Chilterns to Scotland and intended primarily for national defence in the Cold War, was first mentioned publicly in the 1955 Defence White Paper. It announced "The Post Office are planning to build up a special network, both by cable and radio, designed to maintain long distance communication in the event of an attack". It wasn't actually built until the early 1960s, by which time the original Backbone concept had become absorbed into a much larger microwave network built for a mixture of civil and defence traffic including voice, telegraphy, television and radar. [5]
The Isle of Man has an extensive communications infrastructure consisting of telephone cables, submarine cables, and an array of television and mobile phone transmitters and towers.
The services of communication in Jersey comprise Internet, telephone, broadcasting and postal services, which allow islanders to contact people and receive information.
Telecommunications in the United Kingdom have evolved from the early days of the telegraph to modern broadband and mobile phone networks with Internet services.
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
A cell site, cell phone tower, cell base tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed to create a cell, or adjacent cells, in a cellular network. The raised structure typically supports antenna and one or more sets of transmitter/receivers transceivers, digital signal processors, control electronics, a GPS receiver for timing, primary and backup electrical power sources, and sheltering.
Mercury Communications was a national telephone company in the United Kingdom, formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, to challenge the then-monopoly of British Telecom (BT). Although it proved only moderately successful at challenging BT's dominance, it led the way for new communication companies to attempt the same.
The Peterborough transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility at Morborne Hill, near Peterborough, England.
The Bilsdale transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, located at Bilsdale West Moor above Bilsdale, close to Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England. The original facility included a guyed steel tubular mast that was primarily used for radio and television transmission. The height of the mast was 314 metres (1,030 ft) to the pinnacle. Until a fire disabled the transmitter on 10 August 2021 it was among the most powerful transmitters in the UK. The power for analogue was 500 kW ERP and it was 100 kW / 50 kW for digital. The mast was equipped with aircraft warning lights, in the form of arrays of red LEDs. The station was owned and operated by Arqiva. After the main mast was disabled a temporary 80 metres (260 ft) mast was installed at the site. The temporary mast commenced operations on 13 October 2021.
Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made structures. Masts are often named after the broadcasting organizations that originally built them or currently use them.
Arqiva is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters at Crawley Court in the village of Crawley, Hampshire, just outside Winchester. Its main customers are broadcasters and utility companies, and its main asset is a network of circa. 1,500 radio and television transmission sites. It is owned by a consortium of investors led by Digital 9 Infrastructure and the Australian investment house Macquarie Bank. Arqiva is a patron of the Radio Academy.
The Rowridge transmitting station is a facility for FM radio and television transmission at Rowridge on the Isle of Wight in southern England.
Pye Green BT Tower is a 96.9-metre (318 ft) tall telecommunication tower built of reinforced concrete at Pye Green, Staffordshire, England. Standing on the far southern edge of Cannock Chase, it is one of fourteen telecommunication towers in the United Kingdom built of reinforced concrete. Pye Green was constructed as part of the British Cold War "Backbone" radio communications network.
Purdown BT Tower, also known as Purdown Transmitter, is a 70.1 metres (230 ft) tall telecommunications tower in Bristol, England. Built in 1970 for the British Telecom microwave network, it is now used to transmit radio and provide mobile phone coverage.
The Heaton Park BT Tower is a 238-foot (72.54-metre) tall concrete telecommunications tower located next to Heaton Park Reservoir in Manchester, England. Heaton Park BT Tower is one of the few British towers built of reinforced concrete, and one of seven BT towers of the 'Chilterns' design.
The Tinshill BT Tower is a 60.96 metres ( 200 ft) tall telecommunication tower located on the east side of Otley Old Road in the north of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is in an elevated part of Leeds, with its base 192 metres above sea level. It is one of fourteen BT towers built of reinforced concrete.
Stokenchurch BT Tower is a telecommunications tower built of reinforced concrete at Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire, England. Reaching to 340.5 metres (1,117 ft) above mean sea level, it dates from 1963 and is 99.4 metres (326 ft) tall. There are four platforms at the top that are used to attach microwave transmission drums and other antennas.
Morgan's Hill is a 12.6-hectare (31-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Calne and Devizes in Wiltshire, England. The SSSI was notified in 1951 and again in 1987.
Due to economy of scale property of telecommunication industry, sharing of telecom infrastructure among telecom service providers is becoming the requirement and process of business in the telecom industry where competitors are becoming partners in order to lower their increasing investments. The degree and method of infrastructure sharing can vary in each country depending on regulatory and competitive climate.
Telefonica UK Limited, trading as O2 UK (stylised as O2), is a British telecommunications services provider, headquartered in Slough, England which operates under the O2 brand. It is owned by VMED O2 UK Limited, a 50:50 joint venture between Telefónica and Liberty Global. O2 is the UK's largest mobile network operator, with 23.8 million subscribers as of May 2023.
Cellnex Telecom is a Spanish wireless telecommunications infrastructure and services company with up to 135,000 sites -including forecast roll-outs up to 2030- throughout Europe. Its activity is divided into four main areas: services for telecommunications infrastructures; audiovisual broadcasting networks; security and emergency network services; and solutions for the intelligent management of urban infrastructures and services.