5G Connectivity and Drones. By Akshata

[The Droning Company]

5G Connectivity and Drones

 

[Felix le Chat]

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5G Connectivity and Drones

Interesting little article. A bit repetitive though, after all, exactly the same hoo-hah was trotted out 4 years ago concerning 4G mobile network connectivity with DJI's Mavics, matrices and inspires. The clue to it's deployment lies in the BVLOS range, doesn't it. Which means this has absolutely no application to any drone not flown as an "out-of-a-box" commercial solution for mapping, surveillance or delivery functions.
As a small scale 'niche' commercial operator, 4G dongle connectivity would have had great application potential for me: but that concept evaporated like morning mist, so pray tell: exactly why should I, or anyone else who uses this forum get all jiggy and pumped about 5G?

 

[mavic3usa]

Agreed. 5G is already in teh rearview mirror and since these types of technologies don't seem to be easily forward compatible, time to think about 6G. You probably won't have your best implementation unless you work with the mobile phone carriers (the article mentioned T-Mobile) but they don't seem to be taking this seriously. It's not possible to put a lot of time, effort, and money into this when you can't be sure it will ever become viable. FAA has plans for some sort of BVLOS implementation but it likely won't be available to many. And who know where this will land or how long it will be available. Too much risk. Until then, no one can take this seriously and development wouldn't go any further than beyond acknowledging the basics. There are so many things to do with a drone I wouldn't spend any extra developing the 6G capabilities. None of the US carriers will openly work with DJI at this point so my guess is, maybe 7G?

 

[GFields]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[sarahb]

Interesting read.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Agreed. 5G is already in teh rearview mirror and since these types of technologies don't seem to be easily forward compatible, time to think about 6G. You probably won't have your best implementation unless you work with the mobile phone carriers (the article mentioned T-Mobile) but they don't seem to be taking this seriously. It's not possible to put a lot of time, effort, and money into this when you can't be sure it will ever become viable. FAA has plans for some sort of BVLOS implementation but it likely won't be available to many. And who know where this will land or how long it will be available. Too much risk. Until then, no one can take this seriously and development wouldn't go any further than beyond acknowledging the basics. There are so many things to do with a drone I wouldn't spend any extra developing the 6G capabilities. None of the US carriers will openly work with DJI at this point so my guess is, maybe 7G?

And "...FAA plans for some sort of BVLOS...." probably means exactly the same as it does in the UK.... The formation of "SKYWAYS" as dedicated BVLOS corridors using 4G/5G mobile connectivity specifically for delivery and transit and the only way that would ever become viable?

If all the pesky privately owned small drones are?

Let's use our imagination and fill in the blanks eh?