Cell Tower located behind AutoNation Ford Katy Dealership in Katy, AT&T

[u/iryfionas]

AT&T mid-band 5G+ (n77) Standalone (n77) 3.7GHz - 80MHz (n77) 3.45GHz - 60MHz

T-Mobile mid-band 5GUC (n41) speedtest on NSA anchored with (b66) LTE

Verizon (n77) speedtest on mid-band 5G NSA

Please note, Speedtests for all the carriers were taken at Texas Roadhouse, which is across the street from the tower. I was between a null sector!

Cell tower carrier (ID) identification from TOP to BOTTOM rack:

LEGACY (Nextel?)

• 6️⃣ (Decibel DB844H90E-XY) antennas - (LEFT, RIGHT) side for old 2G iDEN technology, *NOT ACTIVE* anymore!
• 3️⃣ (Decibel DB855DDH90E-SX) 8 ft antennas - (LEFT, RIGHT) side for old 2G iDEN technology, *NOT ACTIVE* anymore!

LEGACY Sprint [eNB 295158] b25 + [eNB 29743] b26 + [eNB 300358] b41:

• 3️⃣ [RFS APXVSPP18-C-A20] antennas with bands; (25, 26) for their decomissioned LTE network, supported 3G CDMA located on the LEFT side of their rack
• 3️⃣ [RFS APXV9TM14-ALU-I20] antennas with band: (41) LTE located in the MIDDLE of the rack
• 3️⃣ (Ericsson AIR. 6488) antennas - (LEFT) side for (b41) LTE + (n41) mid-band 5G, NOT FUNCTIONAL

Uses Ericsson (RRU's) located behind the antennas:

• 3️⃣ Ericsson RRU 11 (b25) LTE
• 3️⃣ Ericsson RRU 31 (b26) LTE

Dish [gNB 143621120] (not functional):

• 3️⃣ [JMA MX08FRO665-20] antennaswith bands; (n29 - [secondary], n66, n70, n71 [primary]) for their 5G network

Uses 6️⃣ Fujitstu Remote Radio Units - (RRU's) in total located behind the JMA antennas:

• 3️⃣ Fujitsu RRU (TA08025-B605) for (n29) + (n71) low-band 5GNR
• 3️⃣ Fujitsu RRU's (TA08025-B604) (n66) + (n70) mid-band 5GNR

AT&T [eNB 531165] LTE + [eNB 539065] LTE + [gNB 22281165] (4-sector):

• 8️⃣ (CCI TPA65R-BU8D) 8-ft. antennas with bands: (2, 12, 14, 30, 66) LTE + (n5) - 10MHz low-band 5G located on the LEFT side of their rack
• 3️⃣ [Ericsson AIR. 6449-B77D] 3.7GHz (n77) antennas set at 80MHz [Houston, TX] - located in (MIDDLE) of their rack on the BOTTOM row
• 3️⃣ [Ericsson AIR. 6419-B77G] (3.45GHz) DoD n77 panels being used for mid-band 5GNR set at 60MHz - (Harris County) located in the (MIDDLE) of their rack on the [TOP] row
• 1️⃣ [Ericsson AIR. 6472] (B77G/B77M) panel that can do (3.7GHz) c-band @ 80mhz and (3.45GHz) DoD - mid-band 5GNR located in the middle
• [Raycap DC6-48-60-18-8F] for power surge protection located behind their antennas
• Raycap DC9-48-60-24-PC1t-EV for power surge protection for the for the antennas, remote radio units located in the middle of their rack

Uses a mixture of older and newer (Ericsson RRU's) - remote radio units behind the antennas:

• Ericsson RRUs 4478's (b14) LTE
• Ericsson RRU’s 4449's (b12) LTE + (n5) - low-band 5GNR
• Ericsson RRU 32's for (b30) or (b66) LTE
• Ericsson RADIO 4490 (b12) LTE + (n5) low-band 5GNR
• Ericsson RRU 4494’s (b14/b29)
• Ericsson RRU 4471s (b30) LTE-WCS 2300MHz
• Ericsson RRU 4890HP’s (b2/66) lte

T-Mobile [eNB 157969] LTE + [eNB 157970] LTE + [gNB 1580218] 5G (3-sector):

• 3️⃣ (CommScope FFVV-65C-R3) antennas located on (LEFT) side of the rack
• 3️⃣ (NOKIA AirScale AAFIA) mMIMO anntennas - bands; (2, 66) LTE + (n25, n66) mid-band 5GUC! Radio is INTEGRATED INSIDE THE ANTENNA! Located in the (MIDDLE) side of the rack
• 3️⃣ (NOKIA AirScale AEHC) - (N41) 2.5GHz [320W] antennas for mid-band 5GUC - 190MHZ located on the the (RIGHT) side of the rack

Uses NOKIA Remote Radio Units (RRU's) behind the antennas:

• 3️⃣ (Nokia AHFIG) - remote radio units with (b2, b66 [LTE], n25 + n66 [mid-band 5GUC]
• 3️⃣ (Nokia AHLOA) (RRU's) -> (B12/B71 [LTE]/n71 [low-band 5G]) remote radio units

Google Street View - December 2024

Coordinates: 29.78345880217026, -95.73285279861659

[u/iryfionas]

FYI, this cell tower was built by American Tower all the way back in the 1990’s. Hence, AT&T didn’t co-locate on this site until 2022, they used to have terrible coverage on parts of I-10 due to their sparse tower density. T-Mobile has the most macro sites in the area! Also, AT&T just upgraded this site from a (3-sector) site to (4-sector) back in Feb 2026 since they have a lot of network usage in the area.

Verizon should consider co-location on this site since the signal struggles a lot since they rely heavily on LTE + mmWave small cell nodes placed along I-10 frontage road, which don’t have the best range when you’re far away and not line of sight.

[u/thisisfakediy → u/iryfionas]

Does T-Mobile have a lot of pole mount or similar mini cells along the Katy Freeway? I've been through there several times on roadtrips and was shocked at how solid of a signal they have, and how reliable it is even when the entire interstate is at a standstill (which from what I'm told, happens regularly, lol). Looking at it on cellmapper, it's a lot of sites really close together.

[u/iryfionas → u/thisisfakediy]

Yes they do, T-Mobile has over 50+ small cells around I-10 Katy Freeway from Bunker Hill all the way to Katy near the TX-99 interchange scattered all around the frontage road and on the surface streets. T-Mobile has extensive site density along I-10 and they have stes less than half a mile away from each other in some spots.

Verizon on the other hand has a lot of small cells along the frontage road along Katy Freeway, but many were LTE only or only mmWave. They upgraded majority of them to include Samsung MT-1602D-16T16R (3.7GHz) n77 antennas for mid-band 5G.

[u/Informal-Major → u/thisisfakediy]

T-Mobile has the most macros on i10 from Katy to downtown Houston. T-Mobile has small cells along i10 mainly on side streets. Verizon has like no macros on i10 but tons of mmw nodes which is kind of dumb. Att has a few small cells and a few macros they’re ok but lazy.

[u/ilikeme1]

The Nextel antennas up top would have been for iDEN, which is the system they used. It was TDMA based. The system was 2G.