How do cell phone towers work?

Ok, I think I have a problem with the cell tower near my home. I get maximum strength readings on the cell phone bars and I have verified the cell tower is only a couple of miles away. Yet in about half my calls, sending or receiving, the voice is very choppy. But it is only choppy on my end, the receiver on the other end can hear me fine. I have verified this in calling up my landline number multiple times. When it is fine, it is fine for the whole call and when it is choppy, it is choppy for the whole call. I don't think it can be the phone because I do not get this problem at work or on the road.

So before I call Verizon, I want to educate myself about cell tower operation. I assume they have multiple channels of some finite number so each user that is assigned to that tower will get their own channel? I really like Verizon in other aspects so I hope this problem can get resolved. I had called previously and the guy had me update the firmware on my phone but that did not solve the problem.

Two thoughts -

First of all, Verizon might not be one of the tenants on that tower.

Second, if it's a CDMA service, the power levels in CDMA "breathe" as the traffic loading goes up and down. That could result in erratic power levels.

Third, there could be another transmitter (non-cell) on that tower that's so powerful that its' desensitizing the front end in your cell phone's receiver, even though it's on a different frequency.

BTW, channels are divvied up on the fly. If your phone is a TDMA-based system in particular, each individual channel is divided up into timeslots, allowing multiple phones to converse on the same channel at the same time. They each speak for a millisecond, then allow another one to speak, and s on until the system gets back to your phone. This multiplexing happens so fast that the audio appears to be continuous.

id never hire one

How about the amount of traffic? Is there a possibility that there is so much traffic that the electronics at the tower can't keep up with all of it and somebody loses a packet here and there?

Like I said if it's choppy then it stays choppy for the duration of the call. If it's clear then it stays ok for the duration of the call.