Swisscom Broadcast has commissioned Nokia to provide a comprehensive Drones-as-a-Service network throughout Switzerland. The deployment of 300 Nokia Drone-in-a-Box units is planned to enable emergency response, perimeter protection and infrastructure inspections, contributing to the safety of public safety personnel.

This will be Nokia Drone Networks’ second nationwide project following the Citymesh deployment in Belgium. It will support Switzerland’s public safety and Industry 4.0 efforts and underline Nokia’s strength in modernizing digital infrastructure projects and leveraging mission-critical industrial edge computing (MXIE) with support for 3GPP autonomous beyond line of sight (BVLOS) technologies.

Drones not only increase the safety of rescue workers, but also contribute to resource optimization and help save the lives of victims. The remote-controlled drones collect relevant information within the first few minutes of an emergency, thus improving the situational awareness of rescue workers.

Public safety authorities in Switzerland can easily access the nationwide drone network by requesting a drone flight from Swisscom Broadcast – similar to a ridesharing service. They can also rely on a service portfolio from Nokia and Swisscom Broadcast that includes expertise, compliance, data collection and analysis of the collected data.

The deployment is expected to be available in all areas of Switzerland. Nokia and Swisscom will continue to work with the relevant regulators to ensure that all activities comply with the legal framework, particularly with regard to frequency and flight safety.

Drones will also increase worker safety in Swiss industry, for example when inspecting high or hard-to-reach infrastructure, as workers no longer need to climb or walk around dangerous areas. Since Nokia Drone Networks are an integral part of the Nokia MXIE platform architecture, they enable easy integration of additional applications for industrial customers with edge computing requirements, for example for creating 3D maps or detecting assets.

The deployment will enable reliable drone-as-a-service operations at scale in Switzerland with Nokia Drone Networks, a turnkey drone-in-a-box solution that integrates the drone, a docking station, a ground control station, a payload with video and thermal cameras, associated software and service components. The solution also supports interfaces and APIs for easy integration with third-party providers, such as traffic monitoring systems, video management software, dispatch solutions, and industrial inspection and process monitoring systems.

This collaboration with Swisscom Broadcast also enables the further development of industrial use cases, automation, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations and the expansion of 3GPP technologies for drone use in Switzerland.

Dominik Müller, CEO of Swisscom Broadcast, said: “We are delighted to have chosen Nokia as a partner for this important infrastructure project in Switzerland. Together we can accelerate the market launch of our Drones-as-a-Service offering for our industrial and public safety customers in Switzerland. The integration of our existing people density tool and drone operations expertise with Nokia’s industrial hardware in combination with an open and future-proof software architecture is an important key to supporting such large-scale projects.”

Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, said: “We are proud to partner with Swisscom Broadcast, a true innovator in Drones-as-a-Service, on this important project to establish a nationwide Drone-as-a-Service network in Switzerland. Nokia Drone Networks’ solution enables large-scale projects as it leverages our Mission-Critical Industrial Edge (MXIE) technology to support their advanced computing capabilities and software. It will undoubtedly help Swiss companies gain access to a superior Drones-as-a-Service offering to improve worker and public safety.

Source: Nokia