News

Today at Amsterdam Drone Week, DRONELIFE had the opportunity to speak with Thomas Neubauer, VP of Innovation at TEOCO.   TEOCO is developing the AirborneRF: connecting the cellular industry with aviation.

The Global UTM Association and GSMA, representing more than 750 mobile network operators, set up a collaboration in 2019 called Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity (ACJA). The ACJA is made of several Working Groups, and it focuses on promoting mutual understanding and interchange of data between the aviation and cellular communities. The end purpose is to enhance automated information sharing and avoid incompatibilities between these two ecosystems.

The toughest problem to solve to enable widespread use of autonomous air taxis and drones beyond visual line of sight is the holistic integration of new and legacy air traffic systems. A European project dubbed Gulf of Finland (GOF) 2.0, kicked off on September 2, 2021 and tackled this head on, in the largest trials yet of a single sky air traffic management system. 

While the U.S. chose not to go the route of networked Remote ID, Europe went a different way in developing their UTM program, U-Space.  The newly published NetworkCoverage Service Definition will help European drone operators, aviation systems, and telcos communicate: and the European drone industry to advance towards complex operations.

When we talk about broadcast versus network, the focus has often been mostly around remote ID and their applications to this singular piece of the regulatory puzzle. But what about other pieces like ground and air risk mitigation, live data streaming BVLOS, and other systems that not only make flight safer but also opens up new use cases?

For most commercial drone operators worldwide there is one overriding concern: how can we unlock the true potential of the industry by providing secure beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) services? The theoretical answer has been known for some time. 

We talked about drones as Internet of Things technology, how cellular connectivity enables drone services and what are the use cases today. He shared with us his thoughts about the future of BVLOS drone operations and UAM.

The last 12 months have seen a huge shift in perception of the drone industry, propelled in part by the Covid-19 crisis. The expansion of trial beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations across the globe have demonstrated that the technology is there, as well as the need, and that commercial operations are ready to move to the next level. 

Telstra will use AirborneRF to assess the readiness of its radio access network for future UAV applications, including communications, navigation, surveillance, safety, and identity.

Swisscom is using AirborneRF to investigate and enable safe and successful future BVLOS drone business.