One or more aerials (or antennas) are needed in every base station installation. These aerials are used to transmit and receive signals to and from handsets in the local area.

The number of aerials in the system will depend on the area to be covered around the base station. Each aerial has a controlled beam pattern to provide a sector of radio coverage. The most commonly used sector is about 120 degrees, and normally three aerials are used to provide the full 360 degree coverage, although in some cases a single aerial can be used to provide this coverage. The most commonly used aerial is a vertically mounted unit of between 40cm to 150 cm tall and 15 cm wide.

The aerials are fixed to convenient positions on the building, and care is taken in the design and positioning to make them as visually un-detectable as possible. They may be painted or surrounded by a shroud to match the building onto which they are fixed.

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