Verizon Testing Drones To Provide Network during Natural Disasters

Verizon Drone Testing

Known for its mobile and cheap home phone service, Verizon has been striving hard to be the first telecommunications company providing 5G services to its customers. However, with the 5G network in mind, Verizon has still not wavered from its path to LTE innovations.

And a recent instance explains it all.

Verizon’s Next Step to LTE Innovation

A few days ago, Verizon launched its latest technology in the form of drones carrying the network equipment of LTE, for testing. With this, the prepaid phone service provider seeks to provide its 4G services even in cases of storms, natural disasters, or scenarios when there is a power failure in an area.

So, the coming times promise a good 4G network coverage through Verizon’s network even when the area is struck by storms or natural calamities, when there is often wireless network outages.

The drones by Verizon are out in the testing phase and Verizon is still examining the coverage area of the drones and some other technical aspects of the technology.

The High-Endurance Drone Technology

Verizon’s drones are designed in the form of small airplanes carrying small cell sites. The portable cell network site is not introduced for the first time by this huge prepaid phone service provider. The technology has been in existence in the form of wheel-based portable sites or small pop-ups for events where the network traffic tends to be excessive.

However, Verizon, the giant mobile and cheap home phone service provider is the first one to bring the portable cell network sites in-flight with such a reduced size.

The test flight of the drone was conducted at the Woodbine Municipal Airport, New Jersey and was carried out by American Aerospace Technologies, Inc. (AATI).

The drones have a 17-foot wingspan and can fly to a height of 22,000 feet. The time interval for one flight of a drone is 12-16 hours. The drones will not only provide good network coverage but they can also send live streaming images of the area to the emergency management staff.

Similar drone tests have also been conducted by the prepaid phone service provider in the previous year.

“This new test builds upon our leadership in conducting the first successful demonstration in the U.S. for providing aerial coverage from a long-endurance medium altitude aircraft with AATI in Cape May last October,” said Christopher Desmond from Verizon Network.

Final Thoughts

With a step forward toward the 4G LTE innovation, Verizon’s drone cell sites have come out as a great idea. If the technology comes into being, it will be a great help to people stuck in power grid failures, natural disasters, storms, or any other areas where there is no network coverage due to any reason.

So, people can have uninterrupted communication even during calamities.

Being the innovator of this great idea and technology, the mobile and cheap home phone service provider can surely bring laurels to its name. However, a lot depends on further testing of the drone technology.

If things work out well, Verizon can surely be considered a top innovator in telecommunications.

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