Swisscom to roll out nationwide drone network with help from Nokia

It has tapped up Nokia for no fewer than 300 units of its drone-in-a-box solution. Launched last May, it comprises drones that can connect to public or private 5G and LTE networks, giving them the stable comms necessary to enable flight at beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). Depending on their configuration, each drone can fly for up to 50 minutes at distances of up to 30 kilometres.

The solution also comes with a docking station that recharges the drone and gives it some protection from the environment.

Nokia's drones are able to carry out autonomous scheduled flights, making them suitable for carrying out routine inspections.

In addition to infrastructure monitoring services, Swisscom will also pitch its new drone service to first responders, helping them to evaluate dangerous situations, and improve the safety of emergency service providers.

Swisscom also reckons its fleet of drones can be used to keep tabs on critical infrastructure, helping to protect them from malicious actors.

All being well, the telco plans to launch nationwide services from the autumn. It also pointed out that all its drone-based activities will be carried out in compliance with the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) method, designed to protect other aircraft as well as stuff on the ground.

The new service falls within the remit of Swisscom Broadcast. This division provides terrestrial TV, colocation, mission critical TETRA networking, surveillance, and event ICT services.

It also already offers limited drone services, including drone as a service for inspection tasks, but also anti-drone services to protect sites from malevolent drones. This area of activity must be going well so far, because with this announcement, Swisscom is cranking things up by several notches.

"We are proud to be collaborating with Swisscom Broadcast, genuine innovators in drone-as-a-service solutions, on this important project to establish a nationwide drone-as-a-service network for Switzerland," said Raghav Sahgal, president of cloud and network services at Nokia.

"The Nokia Drone Networks solution uses our Industrial Edge Technology (MXIE) with highly developed computing and software functions, thus facilitating large-scale projects. It will undoubtedly ensure that Swiss companies can access a first-class drone-as-a-service offering, in order to increase employee and public safety," he said.

"The development of the nationwide drone network marks a further milestone in the development of digital security solutions in Switzerland," added Swisscom Broadcast CEO Dominik Müller. "In Nokia, I am confident that we have a strong partner by our side. Together, we can take drone-based security to the next level."

Nokia Drone Networks got off to a flying start last year – just two weeks after it launched it announced a nationwide deal in Belgium with B2B provider Citymesh, which is using them to support the emergency services.

By December, it had commercially launched Nokia Drone Networks in the US. It has been relatively quiet on the drone front since then, but hopefully for the Finnish kit maker, this Swisscom deal is a sign that things are picking up again.