Back in the early 90s, when cellular phones were just introduced, we didn’t really care about masts and towers near schools, in suburbs, and along highways. The benefits of just having cellphone reception outweighed the aesthetic eyesores that came with the convenience.

Now, though, things are different. We’ve become used to having cell phones in our lives, but don’t want the inconvenience of a cellphone mast ruining the sunset view. Sadly, with a growing number of urban dwellers it’s inevitable that cellular networks have to increase the number of cells to provide coverage for a suburb’s population. Thankfully, a whole lot of new technology means that these totems of connectivity no longer have to be a blight. In fact, they can seamlessly blend in with our neighbourhood vistas. We’re not talking about those fake trees – today’s solutions are far slicker – and htxt.africa went on-site to see if the hidden can be seen.

A nice house in the upmarket suburb of Bryanston, in Gauteng, is the last place you’d expect to find a cell tower – but that’s exactly where Vodacom has chosen to deploy one of its new hidden masts. Inside an unassuming flagpole next to the double-storey construction sits an LTE-enabled mast that services a part of the suburb. Francois Hugo, Vodacom’s senior specialist for planning and optimisation in South Gauteng is on hand, and he explains that it’s perfectly placed to mitigate the chances of a reception dead spot. That is to say, rather than having a tower deep in the valley, this location was chosen for its line of sight on a ridge, improving the chances of better reception for the area.

Another house, a few blocks away, also has one of the new cells covertly installed, this time in a chimney. Ideally, a cell site has to be up high and offer a wide blanket of reception for an area, but under these circumstances it’s all that can be done. As a result, rather than having one bigger cell service an area, Vodacom is rolling out multiple smaller cells to do the same – and site selection is made even more difficult because cells can’t really overlap, lest they cause interference.

How is all of this made possible? Well, the latest radio technology from Huawei means that Vodacom can now fit a whole base station’s equipment in a far smaller cabinet. Other deployments of the technology include micro cells built into billboards as well as the advertising boards inside shopping malls. Vodacom’s even been trialling the use of street lamps as cellular antennas.

At the site we visited the equipment is housed in a small green housing – about the size of a large dog kennel – near the base of the flagpole, tucked away in a hedge. From the outside it’s about as loud as a large pool pump, but open the vandal-proof metal door (access is controlled using a wireless remote) and you’ll hear the fans buzzing a lot louder than expected.

We’re told that it’s noisy because it gets quite warm inside the cabinet, but not warm enough to be dangerous to the equipment. Modern cellular radios, network switches, and servers are far more resilient to adverse conditions – but the real concern is keeping the backup batteries cool. There’s no room for a generator here, so battery packs are used as a failover power source, and traditionally an air conditioner is used to keep temperatures cool. Those do bring massive power bills, though, not to mention a larger installation footprint, so to keep the batteries cool they were remotely installed next to the radio cabinet, away from the hot radio equipment,

Regular cell sites usually have large hut-sized cabinet rooms near the base of the radio mast, housing air-conditioning units, backup generators, and all the radio equipment. They also have a lot more room for tidy wiring and moving around, making maintenance a breeze. With these micro cabinets everything is far more snug, but they have exactly the same equipment deployed. Cabling is routed as best as can be, with the same 19-inch server racks used for installing equipment, and this specific residential cell site houses six radios, each capable of handling eight calls – and 48 simultaneous calls in a suburb is more than enough capacity for the area that it covers.

There are limitations, though. Aside from the challenges that come with selecting a prime site for a residential cell, the flagpole design means that only certain frequencies can be supported. In this case it’s the 1 800MHz and 2 100MHz frequencies; the longer-wavelength 900MHz frequency simply can’t be used with the tiny antennas. Francois explains that due to the nature of radio waves, a 900MHz frequency requires a larger antenna – and something that’ll definitely not be flagpole-sized.

Another limitation is the fact that these sites are on private property. Vodacom has to keep in contact with homeowners whenever maintenance needs to be performed – a far-from-ideal situation when an emergency arises. Francois explains that first prize would be to have 24/7 access to a cell site, but given the lack of choice when it comes to deploying towers it’s a small inconvenience that can be lived with.

To make up for that, these smaller sites have technology that allows the antennas to be remotely controlled. Engineers can log in remotely, see what the coverage is like, and adjust the direction of the antennas using electronic tilt adjustment. This way, the signal can be optimised for an area without users noticing anything – or technicians needing to physically adjust the equipment.

Safety is also a huge concern for neighbourhood residents: the last 15 years have seen a lot of focus on the safety of cellular towers and potentially harmful radio waves. However, all installations are performed according to international standards. Francois explains that the biggest risk is within two or three metres of the radio antennas, and to get that close you’d need to climb up the flagpole (or chimney – sorry Santa, you’re going to get crispy this Christmas). He also points out that TV transmissions are an order of magnitude more powerful; and just holding a handset next to your head during a call exposes you to more radio waves than standing near a cell tower. Those with these new cell towers on their properties are not at any more risk than usual.

Homeowners are also paid rent for the use of their property – and installation time shouldn’t be a hassle: the target time for one of these sites is three to four days. With the double whammy of rent being paid (which covers the electricity costs), as well as potentially fantastic cellphone reception, we pointed out that everybody would be lining up to get one of these in their yard.

Vodacom’s point of view? With such limited real estate for placing towers, it would be more than happy to put up towers in everybody’s gardens.

So, if you find yourself suddenly feeling very patriotic and in need of better cellular signal, a flagpole could very well be in your future.