TEOCO, along with partner STRAPAG, will soon leverage its AirborneRF solution to begin deploying drones over Swisscom’s cellular network.

This comes after TEOCO’s initial collaboration with Swisscom announced in 2020, which focused on the analysis and optimization of the network for UAS traffic, according to a news release. The network is now ready to support commercial drone traffic, and the new engagement will extend TEOCO’s AirborneRF solution.

AirborneRF, which is used by several tier-one operators globally, assesses flight paths to ensure drones maintain adequate and continuous cellular coverage for every flight. The solution assures minimum performance-based requirements and provides live flight information. It also offers ground risk information for specific operational risk assessments (SORA) and optionally monitors and logs communications signal performance across the entire flight path.

Through this partnership, the solution will be used to bridge the gap between the cellular and aviation world, making it possible for different players in the drone ecosystem to engage with live Swisscom network data—enabling operational use cases such as emergency response, industrial inspection, search and rescue and logistics.

“This is an exciting moment for Swisscom, as we prepare our cellular network to support commercial drone operations,” Swisscom Drone Solutions Lead Manfred Bacher said, according to the release. “We are now focused on ensuring that drone ecosystem partners have access to the required live data for safe future drone operations and are able to leverage our network to unlock new use cases.”

Swisscom will benefit from TEOCO’s leadership in aviation standardization and regulation. TEOCO recently played a role in creating the Network Coverage Service Interface, an outcome of the cooperation agreement between the GSMA and Global UTM Association (GUTMA), the Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity (ACJA) initiative, which aims to align the objectives of the global mobile and unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) industries.

“We’re delighted to be continuing our partnership with Swisscom to see the capabilities of AirborneRF validated for drone operations,” said Thomas Neubauer, VP Innovations at TEOCO, according to the release. “We’re now entering the next phase toward operational deployments and we’re looking forward to seeing how AirborneRF can integrate the cellular and aviation world to enable new drone use cases and help Swisscom engage with new partners, customers and regulatory and standards bodies.”