Drones aren’t exactly new to wireless networks, but AT&T is claiming an industry first with a 5G-driven drone launched in – of all places – a field in rural Missouri.
AT&T’s drone team picked the field for the April launch of its flying COW (cell on wings vs. the older land-based COWs, or cell on wheels) because it’s so remote: no trees, no houses and no wise-cracking humans. (At least, not until they heard about it on Twitter.)
Ethan Hunt, principal program manager of the AT&T Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), explained in a press release that AT&T had intermittent, weak LTE signals at the flight location before they launched the 5G flying COW.
“We flew the drone up to about 300 feet, turned on the signal and it began transmitting strong 5G coverage to approximately 10 square miles,” Hunt stated.
What that means is customers with capable 5G phones in the area could have gone from no service to super-fast wireless connections in seconds, AT&T pointed out. In the future, this could help first responders when they’re conducting search and rescue missions.
According to Hunt, drones may use 5G for command and control or to stream video, but the AT&T 5G Flying COW is the only drone that provides a 5G network. And AT&T says it could be a game changer.
AT&T has a long history of working with drones, with LTE-based drones beaming coverage during big events or disasters. Its current work is notable given that rival Verizon recently decided to shut down the Skyward drone business that it acquired in 2017.
In a statement, AT&T UAS Program Director Art Pregler said all the focus within the drone world is connectivity, and “all of our drone solutions have that focus.” 5G brings a lot of new capability to the table, he added. “We can connect a lot larger number of devices with 5G. When we put that up, we can share with a larger population.”
AT&T is working through some technical challenges to expand the capabilities of its flying COWs, according to Pregler. One thing they’re concentrating on is the ability to fly without tethers for months at a time without landing and using solar power to provide 5G connectivity to large numbers of users over wide geographic areas.
One project they’re working on involves building a litter of “RoboDogs” that can be used for things like search and rescue or bomb disablement. No word on whether they plan to use robot dogs for any high-speed motorcycle pursuits, but that could be a real blockbuster application.