Telecoms

This page describes tagging guidelines for documenting telecommunication features in OpenStreetMap. It covers everything from submarine fibre optic cables to mobile phone masts, data centres, and telephone exchanges.

This page contains common information about telecom infrastructure mapping worldwide. For region-specific practices, see the Local projects section below.

For related topics, see power networks, water works, and heating networks.

Long distance networks

Long distance networks transmit significant volumes of data between cities, large regions, or countries. Specialised infrastructure is required depending on capacity needs and the risks such links face. You may find route markers, dedicated conduit spaces, and associated buildings along these routes.

Long distance networks prioritise reliability and amplification capacity over raw fibre count. The distances involved require costly amplification devices and high-bandwidth (hundreds of gigabits per second) systems where low repair time is critical. As a result, the capacity=* (number of fibres) inside a given cable is often relatively small. Higher fibre counts are more commonly found in local loop sections that connect subscribers to service equipment.

Submarine cables

Submarine cables link continents under the sea and come ashore at a telecom=cable_landing_station. Because the cables themselves are not directly visible, their routes are often imported from external datasets. See also OpenSeaMap and Open Infrastructure Map.

Recommended tagging:

• communication=line
• location=underwater
• operator=*
• capacity=*
• telecom:medium=* — fibre or copper
• name=*
• ref=*

communication=line

location=underwater

AND one of:

• submarine=yes, OR
• seamark:type=cable_submarine, AND one of:
  • seamark:cable_submarine:category=telephone, OR
  • seamark:cable_submarine:category=fibre_optic

submarine=yes

seamark:type=cable_submarine

seamark:cable_submarine:category=telephone

seamark:cable_submarine:category=fibre_optic

Cable Landing Stations

A telecom=cable_landing_station is a specialized telecommunication location where submarine telecoms cables terminate when they return to shore.

Recommended tagging:

• telecom=cable_landing_station
• operator=*
• name=*
• building=service + utility=telecom (if it occupies a standalone building)
• landuse=industrial + utility=telecom (if the building sits on its own land area , consider tagging the site boundary with these tags)

telecom=cable_landing_station

Important ground cables

Cities and countries are linked by high-capacity cables, mostly fibre (telecom:medium=fibre), which do not necessarily carry a high capacity=* fibre count. Use the same tagging as submarine cables and add location=underground.

Markers

Land cable routes can be as critical as oil or gas pipelines and require markers to prevent accidental damage during surface works. Markers should be mapped as nodes and must not be made members of the underground feature's way, since the physical marker sits above ground, not on the cable itself. See marker=* for more information.

Recommended tagging:

• marker=*
• location=*
• operator=*
• colour=*

marker=

• utility=telecom
• position=*
• ref=*

utility=telecom

Data centres

Data centres are facilities used in the production of telecom services and come in several distinct types. They are typically restricted-access buildings with appropriate utility supplies including power, fibre, and sometimes district cooling.

It is useful to distinguish between buildings with compute capabilities and those that only handle traffic exchange, as these serve very different functions and are almost always located in different places.

A formal proposal to establish broader tagging for data centres should be written and reviewed by the community.

Compute centres

Many buildings serving as data centres or data centers (note the American spelling common in facility names) are currently untagged or inconsistently tagged. Following discussion similar to that around Community Centres, the value data_center is used.

Recommended tagging:

• telecom=data_center
• name=*
• operator=*

telecom=data_center

• building=data_center (if it occupies a standalone building)

building=data_center

Internet exchanges

Internet exchanges are physical infrastructures that allow private companies (such as CDNs) to interconnect directly with an ISP, bypassing one or more intermediate networks. This function involves switching and routing, not compute — though independent computing facilities may be co-located nearby.

Recommended tagging:

• telecom=internet_exchange
• name=*
• operator=*
• building=* (if it occupies a standalone building)

telecom=internet_exchange

Points of presence

Documentation for this section is pending.

Local loop networks

Local loops refer to the last-mile network cables that connect subscribers or businesses to service equipment in a telecom operator's facilities, such as exchanges. These may be high-capacity=* networks carrying large numbers of fibre strands or copper pairs within a single cable.

Telephone exchanges

An exchange is a building housing telephone service devices, including broadband fibre and xDSL equipment, operated by a company providing telecom services. A dedicated exchange building can be tagged with building=service; associated cabinets use man_made=street_cabinet. The access technology can be specified with telecom:medium=*, using fibre or copper as appropriate.

The dedicated tag for a telecom exchange is telecom=exchange.

Connection points

A connection point optimises local loop cable capacity by allowing operators to patch a subscriber line onto a cable running back to the exchange. They always take the form of a building=service or man_made=street_cabinet containing a patch panel.

The dedicated tag is telecom=connection_point.

primary connection points mark the boundary between the distribution and transport sections of the local loop. secondary, tertiary, and further levels are components of the distribution section running towards subscribers. Add telecom:medium=* with fibre or copper to indicate the technology used.

Distribution points

Distribution points differ from connection points in that they do not include a patch panel. They are locations where a small number of subscriber lines are gathered and connected to a local loop cable running upstream to the exchange via connection points. These are typically small boxes located close to the households they serve — too small to be meaningfully described as man_made=street_cabinet.

The dedicated tag is telecom=distribution_point.

Remote terminals

Remote terminals are customer-premise equipment delivering E1, T0, T2, and similar services.

Recommended tagging:

• telecom=remote_terminal

telecom=remote_terminal

Cables

A cable is a duct carrying either twisted pairs or optical fibre. Use copper or fibre accordingly.

Tagging for cables still requires a format proposal to move relevant tags under the telecom=* key and eliminate the duplicates described below.

Overhead lines

Telephone cables are commonly visible in rural areas — typically black insulated copper lines strung between telephone poles. Three tags are currently in use for the same feature, sometimes in combination. A proposal to standardise on a single tag — ideally telecom=line or telecom=cable — would be beneficial.

Primary tag (use one of):

• communication=line — recommended (without a seamark or submarine tag), OR
• aerial_line=telephone — common, OR
• phone=line — lesser usage, OR
• telephone=line — lesser usage

communication=line

aerial_line=telephone

phone=line

telephone=line

Additional tags:

• location=* — overhead or rooftop
• telecom:medium=* — fibre or copper
• operator=*
• cables=*

location=overhead

location=rooftop

telecom:medium=copper

telecom:medium=fibre

Underground cables

Telecom cables may also be buried to improve reliability and reduce dependence on poles. Underground telecom cables are rarely mapped in OSM, but the following tagging is suggested:

Recommended tagging:

• telecom=cable
• location=underground
• operator=*
• cables=*

location=underground

• telecom:medium=* — fibre or copper

telecom:medium=copper

telecom:medium=fibre

Street furniture

Street furniture covers passive infrastructure that hosts telecom features. Mapping practices for telecom furniture should be consistent with those used for other utilities in OSM — there is no reason to map a telecom cabinet differently from a power cabinet.

Telephone poles

Telecom poles are a type of utility pole, used to support overhead telecom networks, particularly local loop cables. The Utility poles proposal introduced a more consistent tagging scheme for utility poles, including telecom poles.

Use man_made=utility_pole + utility=telecom for poles whose primary purpose is to support telecommunications networks. Where a telecom line is carried by a power pole, use power=pole instead. (See also [1] for an alternative approach.)

Recommended tagging:

• man_made=utility_pole
• utility=telecom
• operator=*
• material=*
• height=*
• ref=*

man_made=utility_pole

utility=telecom

Street cabinets

Cabinets are a practical way to house telecom equipment at scale, especially in local loops that extend throughout a country. The distinction from a building is that technicians cannot enter a cabinet — they work with the equipment from outside — whereas a building provides a safe working environment inside.

See the telecom local loop proposal for more detail on the different cabinet types, DSLAMs, and related equipment.

Recommended tagging:

• man_made=street_cabinet
• operator=*
• location=*
• colour=*
• ref=*

man_made=street_cabinet

• utility=telecom

Street cabinets can host any telecom=* feature that fits within a small enclosure that a technician cannot enter.

utility=telecom

Manhole covers and ducts

Underground cables are accessed via manholes leading to chambers connected by ducts. Cables are pulled through the ducts to increase network capacity or replace damaged sections. Both ducts and manholes may be mapped in OSM — manholes are directly visible at the surface, while duct routes become known during public works or through shared public data.

In most cases, ducts and manholes are public infrastructure even though they carry privately-owned cables. It is important to distinguish between the duct operator and the cable operator, given the prevalence of infrastructure sharing.

A formal proposal reviewed by the community should be written, but the following tagging is suggested:

Recommended tagging:

• man_made=manhole
• utility=telecom
• design=* — describes the manhole shape (not just diameter)
• material=*
• operator=*

See also: manhole=*

man_made=manhole

utility=telecom

Radio networks

See also the radio antennas mapping proposal for detailed guidance on mapping radio antennas and related infrastructure.

• 
  man_made=mast
• 
  man_made=tower
• 
  man_made=communications_tower

See also:

• Talk:WikiProject Telecoms — discussion on the use of operator tags
• Proposal:Telecommunications_tower
• man_made=communications_tower

communication:mobile_phone=yes is commonly added to masts, towers, and communications towers to further specify their purpose.

communication:mobile_phone=yes

See this Overpass query for examples of combinations with communication:mobile_phone=yes.

Antennas

Small masts, sometimes attached to other structures.

Recommended tagging:

• telecom=antenna

telecom=antenna

Masts

Masts are small, standalone structures — typically a single pole held up by guy-wires rather than a self-supporting tower. For telecoms, this category includes mobile phone masts in particular.

Note: As of 2026-04-17, ~92% of all man_made=mast features also carry tower:type=*. The alternative mast:type=* is rarely used and has no wiki page.

Recommended tagging:

• man_made=mast
• tower:type=communication
• mast:type=communication (rarely used)
• communication:mobile_phone=yes
• ref=*
• operator=*
• height=*

man_made=mast

tower:type=communication

mast:type=communication

Towers

Towers are larger than masts, are free-standing, and do not rely on guy-wires for support.

Recommended tagging:

• man_made=tower
• tower:type=communication
• communication:mobile_phone=yes
• ref=*
• operator=*
• height=*
• name=*

man_made=tower

tower:type=communication

Communications towers

A man_made=communications_tower is the largest category of telecom tower — the type that dominates the skyline and carries multiple antennas. These structures are often made from concrete, serve as major landmarks, and typically exceed 100 metres in height. Unlike smaller towers, they are accessed by internal lifts and have internal staircases, whereas a man_made=tower must be climbed on the outside.

Recommended tagging:

• man_made=communications_tower
• tower:type=communication
• communication:mobile_phone=yes
• communication:radio=yes
• communication:microwave=yes
• communication:television=yes
• communication:bos=yes
• name=*
• ref=*
• operator=*
• height=*

man_made=communications_tower

tower:type=communication

Local projects

Local projects document practices, knowledge, and mapping guidelines relevant only to a specific part of the world. If no page exists for your region, feel free to create one. Such pages should cover a particular area (country or region) rather than a specific type of infrastructure, to keep this main page consistent.

• Telecoms/France

Online resources

The New Cloud Atlas includes a built-in iD editor with customised telecom presets: http://newcloudatlas.org/edit/id.htm

The project provides two map tile sets for telecom features: standard transparent markers, and a "cloud x-ray" tile set showing a more artistic render with scaled polygons, overlapping markers, and features visible at all zoom levels. A UTF-grid tile set is also available.

http://{s}.newcloudatlas.org/tiles/tiles.py/normal-cloud/{z}/{x}/{y}.png
http://{s}.newcloudatlas.org/tiles/tiles.py/xray-cloud/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

See also

• telecom=antenna
• communication=mobile_phone
• Open Infrastructure Map — shows telecom lines, data centres, exchanges, and communications towers