--- title: How a Wireless Internet Network Is Built url: https://hdiss.net/guides/how-a-wireless-isp-network-is-built/ business: High Desert Internet Services (HDISS) phone: 775-575-9593, 775-391-5660 email: info@hdiss.net mailing_address: Home base: 200 S Virginia St, Suite 760, Reno NV 89501 (dispatch office, not a walk-in store). Mail: Billing Dept., PO Box 11353, Reno NV 89510 hours: Office open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, seven days a week. Network watched around the clock. type: Fixed wireless internet service provider (homes and small businesses), web hosting, customer email, domain registration service_area: Northern Nevada - Washoe, Lyon, Storey, Churchill and Douglas counties and Carson City; availability is checked address by address (line of sight to a tower) plans: Bronze $50/mo up to 500 Mbps down, up to 200 Mbps up; Silver $75/mo up to 800 down, up to 200 up; Gold $99/mo up to 1 Gig down, up to 200 up; ask about the up to 1 Gig / 1 Gig ultra-low-latency service no_online_purchase: true (check your address or call; existing customers pay at https://www2.fernley.net/hdiss/onlinepay/paymentform.cfm) since: 2002 --- - [Home](https://hdiss.net/) - [Guides](https://hdiss.net/guides/) - How a wireless internet network is built: towers, backhaul and the roof # How a Wireless Internet Network Is Built: Towers, Backhaul and the Roof A wireless internet network is a chain: a fast link to the wider internet, radios on a tower, a small antenna on your roof, and a router in your house. Each link has its own limits, and the weakest one sets what you feel. Communications towers on Peavine Peak above Reno: a third-party site, shown to explain how ridge-top towers work (not a High Desert tower). Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hike_to_Top_of_Peavine_Mountain,_Reno,_Nevada_(49793801242).jpg), cropped. [Photo credits](https://hdiss.net/photo-credits/) On this page - [What is backhaul?](#what-is-backhaul) - [What does the radio on the tower do?](#what-does-the-radio-on-the-tower-do) - [What do the FCC's filing rules reveal about the design?](#what-do-the-fcc-s-filing-rules-reveal-about-the-) - [What sits on your roof and in your house?](#what-sits-on-your-roof-and-in-your-house) - [How fast is the approach growing?](#how-fast-is-the-approach-growing) - [How do you find out what applies to your address?](#how-do-you-find-out-what-applies-to-your-address) 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](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-line-of-sight-means/) and the [guide on what blocks a link](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-blocks-a-wireless-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](https://hdiss.net/guides/where-to-put-your-router/) and the [injector lights article](https://hdiss.net/support/power-injector-lights/) 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](https://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](https://www.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/](https://hdiss.net/service-agreement/) (HDISS Service Agreement V 1.12, equipment section, read 10/15/26) ### Talk to a person - Call [775-575-9593](tel:7755759593) [775-391-5660](tel:7753915660) Open 9-5 every day - Email [info@hdiss.net](mailto:info@hdiss.net) [Check my address](https://hdiss.net/check-availability/#check) Local since 2002 Fixed wireless from towers in Northern Nevada. Three plans, no contracts, local support, 4.8 on Google from 36 reviews. [About High Desert](https://hdiss.net/about/) ### Keep reading - [What fixed wireless internet is and how it works](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-is-fixed-wireless-internet/) - [What line of sight means and why we check it first](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-line-of-sight-means/) - [Trees, hills and buildings: what blocks a wireless link](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-blocks-a-wireless-link/) - [Where to put your router](https://hdiss.net/guides/where-to-put-your-router/) - [Licensed-spectrum and unlicensed fixed wireless: what BEAD's wording means](https://hdiss.net/guides/fixed-wireless-licensed-spectrum-vs-unlicensed/) ## More on choosing and understanding - [What fixed wireless internet is and how it works](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-is-fixed-wireless-internet/): Fixed wireless internet is a radio link from a tower to a small antenna mounted on your home or shop, with a router inside that shares the connection over Wi-Fi. It needs no phone line or cable in the street, only a clea - [Is fixed wireless the same as satellite?](https://hdiss.net/guides/is-fixed-wireless-the-same-as-satellite/): No. Fixed wireless is a radio link from your roof to a tower a short distance away on the ground, while satellite internet sends your data up to a dish in orbit and back down again. Both use radio and both need a clear v - [What line of sight means and why we check it first](https://hdiss.net/guides/what-line-of-sight-means/): Line of sight means your roof antenna and the tower it points at can see each other, with nothing solid in between. It is checked at your address because the path is what decides whether fixed wireless works, and a town ## Questions people ask ### Does a tower need fiber? Not always. Backhaul can be fiber or a point-to-point microwave link. Which one a given tower uses is the network owner's choice, and High Desert has not published its own. ### Is the signal the same as Wi-Fi? No. The link from tower to roof is a separate radio system. Wi-Fi is the last few feet inside your home, from your router to your devices.