Is it a tree? Is it a billboard? Is it a chimney? No, it is one of the latest cellular towers around the country
Mobile operators continue to find new ways to disguise mobile sites to ensure they blend in perfectly with the environment.
There is a growing demand for mobile coverage and higher data speeds, and to achieve this more cellular masts are needed.
However, many people find cellular masts to be unsightly and they feel cellular towers ruin the landscape.
To overcome this challenge the operators and vendors have found innovative ways to make mobile masts smaller, and disguise them to blend in with their surroundings.
Most South Africans are familiar with cellular towers that look like trees, but how about masts that look like chimneys or flagpoles?
Here are some of the ways in which Vodacom disguise cellular masts to blend in with the surroundings.
Cellular tower on a mosque
It is not easy to see that there are cellular antennas on the roof of this mosque, hidden within in the mini minarets.
A church with great reception
This church steeple has been extended, with the cellular antennas hidden behind screening.
Chimney cellular sites
You have to look very closely to see that these are not normal chimneys, but rather a cellular site hidden in a chimney.
Windmill cellular tower
To ensure that Langebaan’s landscape maintains is quaint look, Vodacom placed a cellular tower in a windmill.
Mini and Macro billboard sites
Billboards offer a great place to hide a cellular site. Technology advances even made it possible to conceal RF equipment and antennas in a mini-billboard.
Flagpole cellular sites
Cellular antennas are often hidden in flagpoles. Fibre is used to connect the flagpole-based sites to the core network.
Lamppost cellular towers
There are many lampposts in any town or city, and by making base stations and antennas smaller it is now possible to use these lampposts as cellular towers.
Is it a tree, or is it a cellular tower?
Here are a few examples of cellular towers which are disguised as trees to fit into the landscape.
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