I’ve been scouring the Internet for probably several days now trying to put a dollar amount figure to what the actual antenna itself that the carrier operator owns makes per month/year… Anything. I know some very amateur basics about telecommunications. Everyone I ask seems to know all the technical aspects and protocols of how cell tower antennas function, but not really what they can earn. I’m not even sure how to measure this e.i. $x per xMbps per hour or some other time variable.
I just want a basic answer like on average, a typical 100 mbps antenna generates x per year any additional break downs would be greatly appreciated.
As a former wireless guy I used to ask a similar question. Best answers I received were cost of a text is about one cent, cost of a phone call about 3 cents per minute. That was assuming it was all on network. Stuff going off network like a Verizon phone to a sprint phone includes extra carrying charges. Call out of state could be taxed more depending upon which state(s) the call was routed thru. This is also assuming that the network is set up for 99.9% reliability with parts being frequently changed to enhance reliability. This also assume the site is being used on a regular basis, if you are thinking of some kind of micro network those figures will be higher.
Much has changed in the 15 years when I heard this. Most calls are effectively voip which reduces the tax burden and most carriers have agreements to cap network fees to other carriers.
In the early 2000s a big indicator of tower profitability was bad debt & fraud. Dirty secret that nobody talked about was poor neighborhoods got worse service because the towers that covered them had substantially more bad debt, meaning calls were made but bills were not paid, they also had a disporotionate amount of fraudulent calls from stolen devices.
The question is simple but extremely complicated.
Another basic figure I heard was that the land, equipment, permits, wire img and backup systems cost about one million per tower. Again that figure is from the early 2000s/late 90s
There have been people who have set up their own phone/data networks on remote islands and such it’s absolutely possible and it doesn’t cost that much but they do require frequent maintenance to keep running. Google it.