Cellphones and walkie talkies are on the same page when it comes to mobility and ease of use. Each of these certainly has its advantages and disadvantages. And one of the things that set one apart from the other is the reliance on cellphone towers.
First off, I will discuss how cellphone towers work and why they are needed for cellphones to function. Next, I will walk you through how walkie talkies work and whether they need cellphone towers to communicate or not.
Short Answer
No, walkie talkies do not need cellphone towers to work and makes use of a different kind of system in order to communicate. Cellphones, on the other hand, rely heavily on cellphone towers. This means that not only do cellphones need cellphone towers to work, factors like quality are also affected by the presence, even nearness of the location, of these towers to the handsets.
Long Answer
With the rapid and continuous advancements in cellphone technology, from software to physical appearance, it can be easy to think that walkie talkies may seem outdated and clunky in comparison. However, as with everything, cellphones and walkie talkies each have their advantages and disadvantages over the other.
How Cellphone Towers work
In the most basic sense, cellphones function in almost a similar way as walkie talkies do in that it is somewhat like a two-way radio. As with walkie talkies, cellphone units communicating with each other function as a transmitter and receiver. However, for cellphones, cellphone towers play a big part in how this process works.
The cellphone transmits signals in the form of radio waves, which are picked up by the nearest cellphone tower. These radio waves are then relayed from cellphone tower to cellphone tower until it reaches the cellphone at the other end of this line of communication. Without cellphone towers, the radio waves sent out by the transmitting cellphone cannot be relayed to the receiving cellphone.
How Walkie Talkies communicate
As mentioned earlier, walkie talkies are similar to cellphones in that radio waves are sent from radio to radio in the same transmitter-receiver system. One difference is that while cellphones allow for continuous flow of communication between units, walkie talkies have the Push-To-Talk (PTT) system. However, the main difference is that walkie talkies can send signals and communicate with each other, even without cellphone towers. Radio waves transmitted and received between units can travel through the air even without cellphone towers to relay them.
Advantages of not needing a Cellphone Tower
Because walkie talkies do not need cellphone towers to function, you can use these in places where cellphones cannot work due to lack of signal. This is especially useful for outdoor activities like hiking, for example. When you are up in the mountains, deep in the woods, where no cellphone tower is erected or can be reached by ones nearby, walkie talkies are your go-to communication devices. If the walkie talkies are optimized and are being used in the best circumstances, you can even expect the best quality of communication in terms of crisp signals and a broader range.
You can find out more about how you can optimize the use of walkie talkies in terms of range in one of the articles I wrote here: How to extend Walkie Talkie Range.
For indoor activities, this is most useful for tasks that require a quick and clean line of communication to ensure that crucial instructions are clearly received and understood.
An excellent example of this would be at construction sites. Engineers, architects, forepersons, and other personnel need an uninterrupted line of communication so that they can deliver instructions immediately, can crosscheck if these instructions were understood well, and can ensure that these were carried out precisely.
Conclusion – Do you need a Cellphone Tower for Walkie Talkies?
The presence or absence of cellphone towers does significantly affect the pros and cons of using a cellphone or walkie talkies. However, that is not the only factor you have to consider. Cellphones are still great for long-distance communications while walkie talkies are great for short-range. It will also depend on your communication requirements.
Do you need to communicate for conversation or abrupt but efficient exchanges? Will you be communicating outdoors or within a building? Choose whichever you think will work better and make your tasks easier to accomplish.
