The Top 10 things you didn’t know about Internet towers

If you’ve ever spotted a tall metal tower on a hill or rooftop around Tucson and thought, “What’s that thing actually doing?” — this one’s for you.

At Simply Bits, those towers are the heartbeat of our fixed wireless network — silently keeping homes, businesses, and entire communities connected every day. But there’s way more to these towers than meets the eye.

Here are 10 cool (and kind of surprising) facts about Internet towers — and why they’re such a big deal for Southern Arizona.

Contrary to popular belief, towers don’t beam Wi-Fi across town like a giant router. They send a secure radio signal to a small antenna (called a subscriber module) installed on your home or business. That connection creates a fast, direct link to the Internet — no cables required.

Every tower has a purpose — and a perfect view

Simply Bits towers are placed with precision. Whether on a mountaintop, a building, or tucked along a ridge, each one is positioned to make the most of Tucson’s terrain. The goal? Clear line of sight and strong, consistent coverage that fits the landscape, not the other way around.

They’re built to handle desert heat (and monsoon rain)

Southern Arizona weather isn’t for the faint of heart. Simply Bits towers are engineered to withstand extreme heat, dust storms, and 50+ mph winds. In other words: if your patio umbrella blows away, your connection probably won’t.

Some towers serve hundreds of customers

One tower can power high-speed connections for hundreds of homes and businesses — all at once. Each customer’s antenna connects to the tower’s antennas, which split the signal efficiently like invisible lanes on a highway.

Every tower has its own “neighborhood”

Towers are grouped into coverage zones — think of them as neighborhoods. Your service depends on which tower you connect to, based on your location and line of sight. So yes, your Internet technically has a local “address.”

They make high-speed Internet possible without construction

No trenching. No road closures. No months of waiting. Fixed wireless towers let us deliver fast, reliable Internet to homes that might otherwise wait years for fiber builds.

That’s a big win for rural and suburban areas where running cables just doesn’t make sense.

The signals are fast enough to keep up with you 

Fixed wireless isn’t satellite — it’s ground-based and super responsive. Signals typically travel just a few miles between your home and the tower, resulting in low latency that’s perfect for streaming, gaming, and remote work.

Towers get upgrades, too

Our towers aren’t static — they’re constantly evolving. The Simply Bits network is being modernized with new radios, higher capacity links, and advanced backhaul connections to support speeds up to 1 Gbps. It’s like giving every tower a new brain.

They’re all over Southern Arizona, keeping you connected

From Oro Valley to Vail and beyond, you’ve probably driven past a Simply Bits tower without noticing. Many are designed to blend into rooftops, structures, or natural landscapes, keeping them functional but unobtrusive.

Towers are the unsung heroes of a better Internet

Without towers, there’d be no fixed wireless — and for many Tucson neighborhoods, no fast Internet at all. They’re the backbone of what makes Simply Bits such a powerful solution: local technology connecting local people.

In short

Internet towers might not be flashy, but they’re quietly changing the way Tucson connects — bringing high-speed service to places traditional infrastructure just can’t reach.

So the next time you look up and spot one on a ridge or rooftop, give it a little nod. That’s your Internet, standing tall.

Want to see if your home or business connects to a Simply Bits tower?
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