I laugh and joke about this, but let’s talk about the differences in using 4g on the moon vs earth. 1/n https://twitter.com/spacenerd19/status/1318312308096049153

Any structures wouldn’t need to be near as strong due to lack of wind and much lower gravity. All cell towers on earth are evaluated with winds( straight line, uplift, etc) , ice, and other forces that don’t apply on the moon. 1/6 gravity means 1/6 down forces. 2/n

Network differences. On earth, the cell networks are a convoluted mix of land line and pure wireless signal. Most all sites in the states now have fiber to them to take up all that information and send it on. Truly completely wireless networks are rare. 3/n

On the moon, we’ll want a combination antennas to send/receive to the devices and microwave dishes(generally higher frequency) to talk to each site. We’ll only be able to communicate a short distance outside the blocks and the topology matters a lot. Step in a crater 4/n

And it likely won’t work. Antennas are directional and must be pointed fairly close to the receiving devices. 5/n

Now for positives. A cell site has finite amount of bandwidth. You take that bandwidth divide by number of users(times their data rate) and that is the max speed each will receive. Initially I expect that denominator to be VERY low. This means you can get good results with 6/n

Relatively low power systems. It also means a given site can cover a much larger area. A cell site on earth CAN cover an 8ish mile radius, but generally covers half a mile or less due to the amount of customers on it. 7/n

Now shit above my knowledge base that could really fuck up a cell system.

Mars dust
Solar radiation
Solar storms
Temperature( I know this is a problem, I just don’t know how you’d rectify it)