Editing Cell site (section)

=== Channel reuse ===
The concept of "maximum" range is misleading in a cellular network. Cellular networks are designed to support many conversations with a limited number of [[radio channel]]s (slices of [[radio frequency spectrum]] necessary to make one conversation) that are licensed to an operator of a cellular service. To overcome this limitation, it is necessary to repeat and [[frequency reuse|reuse]] the same channels at different locations. Just as a car radio changes from one local station to a completely different local station with the same frequency when traveling to another city, the same radio channel gets reused on a cell mast only a few miles away. To do this, the signal of a cell mast is intentionally kept at low power and in many cases tilted downward to limit its reach. This allows covering an area small enough not to have to support more conversations than the available channels can carry. Due to the sectorized arrangement of antennas on a tower, it is possible to vary the strength and angle for each sector depending on the coverage from other towers in the area.