Two of the United States’ largest mobile phone companies are exploring using drones as flying mobile hot spots to provide phone and other services when cell towers are down or in areas where service does not exist.
«After Hurricane Sandy, we lost cell service countywide for several days,» said Martin Pagliughi, the director of the Cape May County Office of Emergency Management in New Jersey.
Recently, several of Cape May’s emergency responders gathered at a municipal airport in Woodbine, New Jersey, to watch Verizon launch a 90-kilo drone into the sky. When it reached an altitude of 915 meters, a hot spot on board started transmitting a wireless signal. On the ground, members of the police noted the strength of the service on the Verizon-issued phones they were carrying.
«They were testing texting, they were testing voice, they had full coverage in the radius,» Mr. Pagliughi said.
Verizon is trying to determine how a portable 4G LTE hot spot could work in an area «where a disaster had impacted Verizon service and there is no other way to get cellular coverage to that location,» said Christopher Desmond, a principal engineer for the company. The trial in Cape May reaffirmed the viability of the concept, he said.
In 2017, AT&T won a $7 billion federal government contract to construct a nationwide disaster readiness network called FirstNet. Parts of the program will include technology to provide cell service from the sky. When Hurricane Harvey struck Houston and Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico, AT&T relied on mobile hot spots driven to sites and raised onto masts to provide cellphone service.
The company also can launch a remote four-rotor hovering drone known as a Cell on Wings, which is tethered to ground cables for data exchange and power.
Verizon is also pursuing other possible uses for drones.
«We envision the ability for the aircraft to have a camera onboard to collect the photographic data and beam it to the ground,» Mr. Desmond said, providing awareness at the scene and also at a command center. That, he said, would enable better collaboration between those inside and outside a disaster zone.
Cape May County has a special certificate exempting it from Federal Aviation Administration regulations that limit drone flights to daylight hours and altitudes under 120 meters. The waiver allows test flights up to 2,100 meters.
Much of the 2,070 square kilometers of approved air space is over water or undeveloped land without cell service, making the area ideal for testing flying cell sites.
The pilotless airplane with its five-meter wingspan is much larger than a hobbyist’s drone. It does not hover; it does not run on batteries. Instead, its gas engine supports flights as long as 16 hours, while producing 400 watts of power — enough to control the airplane and feed the electrical needs of a communications hot spot, camera and other onboard equipment.
«It’s a unique vehicle, a unique way of carrying sensors with a persistence you can’t get from manned aircraft,’’ said David Yoel, the founder and chief executive of American Aerospace, the company that owns the drone and operates it for Verizon.
Aid for emergency responders during a disaster.