Telcopolis

A strategy game about mobile networks

Build a mobile operator. 1991 → 2039.

From the first GSM mast to 6G and a country full of machines: buy spectrum at auction, raise masts street by street, win customers from your rivals, and keep the cash flowing.

▶ Play the 2G era free Watch the trailer · 50 s

In your browser, with a free account. Then $4.99 an era, or $9.99 for all four. Pricing

Every mast is a decision

Where, how high, which band.

A guyed mast covers a valley; a rooftop site covers a street. Every one costs money, and every one has to pay for itself.

A 75-metre guyed mast
Guyed mast75 m · the countryside
A 40-metre lattice tower
Lattice tower40 m · villages, suburbs
A rooftop site on an eight-storey brick building
Rooftop siteon a building · city streets
A glass tower in the capital
The capitalwhere customers pay most
An operator's headquarters with a mast on its roof
Your headquartersa mast on its roof
A 25-metre monopole
Monopole25 m · suburbs, towns

Then and now

The same streets, 40 years apart.

The city grows around your network, and its skyline rises with it. Drag to compare.

The capital's business district in 1996 The same streets in 2036, now a forest of glass towers under solar roofs 19962036

One campaign, five eras

Forty-eight years of mobile history.

Each era ends with a finale and a report that compares you with a sound operator on the same map.

The capital in the 1990s

2GFree

1991–2001 · GSM, the first licence

1 July 1991: the first GSM call. Your licence starts the same day.

The capital in the 2000s

3G$4.99

2002–2010 · the auction, the data wave

2000: £22.5bn for five British licences. Bid high, or stay behind.

The capital in the 2010s

4G$4.99

2011–2019 · smartphones, a low-cost rival

2012: a low-cost operator arrives at half the price. Hold on to your customers.

The capital in the 2020s

5G$4.99

2020–2029 · massive MIMO, satellites

2024: the first texts sent from satellites to ordinary phones. Partner, or compete?

The capital in the 2030s

6G$4.99

2030–2039 · machines, cyberattacks

2039: five machines for every person. Will they choose your network?

The game's coverage map

A real network

See every signal.

Coverage, capacity, the links back to your core: the map shows where your network is strong, and where customers are waiting.

  • 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and 6G, each on its own bands
  • Microwave, leased lines, fibre and a cable to the world
  • Storms, power cuts, congestion, cyberattacks
The operator's profit and loss account

A real business

Every month, a full P&L.

Revenue per customer, margins, loans, licences, tower sales and takeovers, calibrated against real operators' figures.

  • Price wars with three AI operators
  • Spectrum auctions you can lose
  • Debt that can sink you
A Learn card

Learn as you play

The engineering, explained.

Four advisors and the Learn cards explain coverage, capacity and transmission in plain words, then in engineering depth.

  • History cards from the first call, and the 2030s imagined
  • A guided tutorial

Pricing

Start free. Pay once per era.

No subscription, no ads, no in-game currency, no loot boxes. All the details

The 2G eraFree1991–2001, its finale and its report
3G, 4G, 5G or 6G$4.99each era, once, on every device
All four eras$9.992002–2039, the whole campaign

Your licence starts on 1 July 1991.

The day of the first GSM call. Build the network the next forty-eight years will need.

▶ Play the 2G era free