Database format

Cells database:

The entire worldwide dataset of cell towers can be downloaded from http://opencellid.org/downloads

A valid e-mail address is required to register for an API key; this e-mail address will neither be sold nor be distributed to a third party.

- The file is updated on a daily basis
- Each token will be able to download only twice per day
- The database is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Signup:

You can signup for a key at https://opencellid.org/

cell_towers.csv and cell_towers_diff-*.csv.gz files format

Parameter	Data type	Description
<radio>	string	Network type. One of the strings GSM, UMTS, LTE or CDMA.
<mcc>	integer	Mobile Country Code, for example 260 for Poland.
<net>	integer	For GSM, UMTS and LTE networks, this is the Mobile Network Code (MNC). For CDMA networks, this is the System IDentification number (SID).
<area>	integer	Location Area Code (LAC) for GSM and UMTS networks. Tracking Area Code (TAC) for LTE networks. Network IDenfitication number (NID) for CDMA networks.
<cell>	integer	Cell ID (CID) for GSM and LTE networks. UTRAN Cell ID / LCID for UMTS networks, which is the concatenation of 2 or 4 bytes of Radio Network Controller (RNC) code and 4 bytes of Cell ID. Base station IDentifier number (BID) for CDMA networks.
<unit>	integer	Primary Scrambling Code (PSC) for UMTS networks. Physical Cell ID (PCI) for LTE networks. An empty value for GSM and CDMA networks.
<lon>	double	Longitude in degrees between -180.0 and 180.0 changeable=1: average of longitude values of all related measurements changeable=0: exact GPS position of the cell tower
<lat>	double	Latitude in degrees between -90.0 and 90.0 changeable=1: average of latitude values of all related measurements changeable=0: exact GPS position of the tower
<range>	integer	Estimate of cell range, in meters.
<samples>	integer	Total number of measurements assigned to the cell tower
<changeable>	integer	Defines if coordinates of the cell tower are exact or approximate. changeable=1: the GPS position of the cell tower has been calculated from all available measurements changeable=0: the GPS position of the cell tower is precise - no measurements have been used to calculate it.
<created>	integer	The first time when the cell tower was seen and added to the OpenCellID database. A date in timestamp format: number of seconds since the UTC Unix Epoch of 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z For example 1409522613 is the timestamp for 2014-08-31T22:03:33Z.
<updated>	integer	The last time when the cell tower was seen and update. A date in timestamp format: number of seconds since the UTC Unix Epoch of 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z For example 1409522613 is the timestamp for 2014-08-31T22:03:33Z.
<averageSignal>	integer	Average signal strength from all assigned measurements for the cell. Either in dBm or as defined in TS 27.007 8.5 - both is accepted.

How to Open the Cells CSV:

The OpenCelliD cells database is available for download in the form of a ~900mb zipped file. On unzipping the file, the database comes down to a ~3.3 gb CSV. You’ll not be able to view/ work on this via excel as the file is too large for Microsoft Excel to handle. Microsoft Excel has an official limit of about 1 million rows. You have the following options:

- Use 'Data Tools' in Microsoft Excel. ('Data' Tab > 'Get Data')
- Use a programming language (Python, R, VBA etc..)
- Use a database (MS Access, SQL etc..)
- Use a software (reCsvEdit, CSV Viewer etc...) You can find a quick guide here