Most people only see the last two links, the antenna outside and the router inside. The first two are why the service works at all. This guide walks the chain from the internet side to your living room, using general engineering ideas and the FCC's own reporting rules. It does not describe any High Desert tower, because the company has not published that.
Takeaways
- Link one is backhaul: the big pipe that connects a tower to the wider internet, by fiber or by point-to-point microwave.
- Link two is the tower radio, which shares its capacity among the homes it serves.
- The FCC asks a wireless provider that files a coverage map to report propagation models, base stations, link budgets and clutter categories.
- Fixed wireless was about 8.5% of fixed broadband connections in mid-2025, up from 2.9% in mid-2022 (FCC 26-55, para. 29).
What is backhaul?
Backhaul is the connection that carries traffic between a tower and the rest of the internet. It can be fiber in the ground, or a point-to-point microwave link that jumps from one hilltop to the next. The FCC's rules define the fixed service as “a radio communications service between specified fixed points” (47 CFR 101.3), which is the plain description of a dish aimed at another dish.
A tower is only as capable as the backhaul behind it. If many homes share a thin backhaul link, everyone feels it at busy hours. That is a design choice the network owner makes, and it is one reason two towers with similar radios can behave differently.
What does the radio on the tower do?
A tower carries base station radios with antennas aimed at sectors of the surrounding land. Each sector serves the homes inside it. The capacity of a sector is shared among those homes, much as a road is shared among the cars on it. Providers plan how many homes to connect to each sector, and add radios or new towers when a sector fills up.
The signal itself is microwave radio. It travels in a nearly straight line, which is why a clear path matters so much. The line of sight guide and the guide on what blocks a link cover trees, hills and buildings in detail.
What do the FCC's filing rules reveal about the design?
Twice a year, providers report where they offer service to the FCC's Broadband Data Collection. A fixed wireless provider that files a coverage polygon instead of a list of addresses must, in the FCC's words, “submit information about their propagation models, base stations, carriers, link budgets, and clutter categories” (FCC 26-55, footnote 91, read 10/15/26).
Those five terms are a short course in how these networks are planned. A propagation model predicts how the signal spreads. Base stations are the tower radios. Carriers are the radio channels in use. A link budget adds up the power sent, the antenna gain and the losses along the way to see whether the receiver can hear. Clutter categories describe what sits on the ground, such as trees, buildings and open land, because each absorbs signal differently.
What sits on your roof and in your house?
At the customer end there is a small antenna and radio mounted outside, aimed at the tower. A cable from the radio runs inside to a power supply, often called an injector, and from there to your router. High Desert's service agreement lists the antenna, radio, power supply and injector as company-owned equipment that stays with the company. Your router and Wi-Fi are your side of the line.
Do not climb to the antenna or touch the outdoor radio or its cable. If something looks wrong, call 775-575-9593 and a technician comes. Inside the house, the router placement guide and the injector lights article help with the parts you can safely reach.
How fast is the approach growing?
The FCC's 2026 Section 706 report says fixed wireless accounted for 2.9% of fixed broadband connections on June 30, 2022, and 8.5% on June 30, 2025, which it describes as having “nearly tripled in three years.” That national figure includes every kind of fixed wireless, not just tower-to-roof service, so treat it as a trend rather than a statement about any one company.
What to take from it: this is an established way to deliver internet, and its design rules are public. The details that matter to you are local: how far the nearest tower is, what stands in between, and how busy that tower's sector is.
How do you find out what applies to your address?
Nobody can tell you from a map. A person has to look at the path between your roof and a tower. If you send your address through the check form, a person at High Desert looks at the path from the nearest tower and calls you back. High Desert does not publish tower locations or a coverage map, so the address check is the way to learn.
Sources
- docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-26-55A1.pdf (FCC 26-55, para. 29 and footnote 91, read 10/15/26)
- law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/101.3 (47 CFR 101.3, definition of fixed service, read 10/15/26)
- hdiss.net/terms-of-use/ (HDISS Service Agreement V 1.12, equipment section, read 10/15/26)