With Swisscom’s network ready to support commercial UAV traffic, the operator is to use TEOCO's AirborneRF – a connectivity data platform for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations in cellular networks – to provide valuable information about where drones can fly without losing wireless connectivity.
The announcement builds on the initial TEOCO and Swisscom collaboration last year, with Swisscom saying it will help to monetise opportunities.
“This is an exciting moment for Swisscom, as we prepare our cellular network to support commercial drone operations,” said Manfred Bacher, drone solutions lead, Swisscom. “We are now focused on ensuring that drone ecosystem partners have access to the required live data for safe future drone
operations, and are able to leverage our network to unlock new use cases.”
Already deployed by several tier-one operators globally, AirborneRF assesses the flight path to ensure a UAV can maintain adequate and continuous cellular coverage for every flight. It assures minimum performance-based requirements and live information during flight operations to cope with the dynamic behaviour of the cellular infrastructure.
In addition, AirborneRF provides ground risk information for specific operational risk assessments (SORA) and optionally monitors and logs communications signal performance across the entire flight path.
TEOCO’s AirborneRF solution will be used to "bridge the gap between the cellular and aviation world", allowing different drone ecosystem players to come together to engage with live Swisscom network data. This will enable new operational use cases, such as the use of drones in emergency scenarios, in industrial inspections, in search and rescue, as well as logistics.
“We’re delighted to be continuing our partnership with Swisscom to see the capabilities of AirborneRF validated for drone operations,” said Thomas Neubauer, VP innovations at TEOCO. “We’re now entering the next phase towards operational deployments and we’re looking forward to seeing how AirborneRF can integrate the cellular and aviation world to enable new drone use cases and help Swisscom engage with new partners, customers, and regulatory and standards bodies.”
