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Thomas Neubauer, CEO of Dimetor, discusses the integration of cellular networks in aviation for reliable command, including Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. He addresses the gap between communications and aviation ecosystems, his role in Europe’s UTM interface standard, and portrays drones as Aerial IoT devices. Lastly, he shares insights into his company, AirborneRF, its mission and business model.

Telecom company Vodafone Germany, in cooperation with Dimetor, has launched a tool that drone operators can use to estimate the ground risk of a given drone flight. The digital risk analysis tool, DroNet, reveals, among other things, how many people are in the flight area and whether there is sufficient mobile coverage en route for a stable data connection between drone and control room.

On March 23, 2023, Vodafone and Dimetor will launch DroNet, the industry’s first digital data service to risk check commercial drone flights. According to a joint company statement, operators and licensing authorities can use Vodafone’s drone service via a digital interface to assess the ground and connectivity risk with the help of anonymized movement data from the mobile network.

The unbelievable demand for drone applications across sectors continues to soar. The case is being pushed harder now than ever with the arrival of 5G. But interestingly, the emergence of drone applications in the era of 5G means that telcos have new business opportunities.

Alaian nacía a finales del pasado mes de abril como una alianza de seis compañías de telecomunicaciones. Su propósito: que sus integrantes compartan información y buenas prácticas en materia de innovación. Una de sus primeras iniciativas fue una convocatoria a startups con soluciones 5G de la que ahora se conocen resultados: 175 empresas respondieron a la llamada.

“Operators can use cellular drones to provide enhanced connectivity services, thereby generating additional revenue. They can also use drones to move up the value chain by providing support and application services.”

GMSA and GUTMA are proud to officially release the new document Interface for Data Exchange between MNOs and the UAS Ecosystem, two years after the first version of the paper. The document, which is the product of the Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity (ACJA), aims at covering the use cases that emerged in these two years, through which mobile network operators (MNOs) provide more than just “connectivity coverage”.

Orange Polska and Dimetor are working together in the GOF 2.0 EU project to verify the possibilities to enable the safe operation of drones in the airspace via 5G communications. “Reliable real-time communication between drone operators, air navigation service providers (ANSPs), and other relevant third parties is critical for deploying innovative drone use cases at scale,” according to a Dimetor press release. “Mobile network connectivity allows drones to be conspicuous and safely managed for beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.  For this reason, Orange Polska is using Dimetor’s AirborneRF platform to provide critical connectivity and ground risk information in support of BVLOS drone operations.

In the last year, three reasons have emerged to showcase Europe authority’s leading position in cellular-enabled beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations.

GUTMA and GSMA collaboration (LINK), ACJA Work task #2 has recently released the ‘Reference Method for assessing Cellular C2 Link performance and RF environment characterisation for UAS’. AirborneRF Co-founder and TEOCO Vice President of Business Development and Innovation Thomas Neubauer leads the initiative and explains in this DroneTalks video the essential concepts to take into consideration: