Understanding Required Line of Sight Limitations used by Fixed Wireless ISP’s
Line of sight is simply standing between the mounting position of the antenna at client building and looking through binoculars so you can clearly see the other side of the wireless connection you intend to create. Usually this is “good enough” to get a stable good fixed wireless connection.
Why sometimes even a clear “Line of Sight” between your location and a tower isn’t good enough:
Fixed Wireless Internet access is based on low power radio signals in unlicensed microwave spectrums. Because of this there are limits to what the signal may be obstructed or reduced by to unusable levels. Even though you may be in our coverage area, it does not guarantee you can get a connection. You must have clear line of sight from your location to receive the Wireless Internet service that is not obstructed by trees, other buildings or any other physical blockage to one of our towers unlike cell phones which rely use much high power and sacrifice roaming for stability of latency (ping times) and speed.
Wait, not so fast! Even if you can clearly see between your location and a Wireless access point it, the signal may STILL BE REDUCED if there are obstructions in the “Fresnel zone“. If unobstructed, radio waves will travel in a straight line from the transmitter to the receiver. But if there are obstacles near the path, the radio waves reflecting off those objects may arrive out of phase with the signals that travel directly and reduce the power of the received signal to some degree depending on amount and type of obstructions just NEAR the line of sight. But in general “IF YOU CAN SEE OUR TOWER, MOUNTAIN, SILO, ETC. YOU CAN GET SERVICE”!
There are various ways to overcome these obstacles, such as: Mounting to existing towers or TV masts, installing small towers or masts, removing or trimming trees or tree limbs, etc. Overcoming significant obstacles to line of sight issues are not included with any standard installation and may be an extra charge if necessary but are typically not required.