Top

Cellular Connected Drones Will be the ‘iPhone Moment’ for Drone Industry

More than 10% of Drones will support eSIMs and advanced cellular connectivity by 2022

The drone market is expanding due to rise in the number of commercial applications (refer to our previous blog for more details), and cellular connectivity will be essential for emerging use cases like live-video streaming, real-time monitoring, delivery through drones and other beyond visible line of sight (BVLOS) operations (refer to our Drone report for application areas). Cellular connectivity would help in remote identification, tracking flight path and supporting law standards defined by regulatory bodies globally. Further, eSIMs (Embedded Sims) would play an important role in cellular connectivity of drones to mitigate privacy, safety and security concerns.

As per our latest forecast, 13% of the drones are going to be equipped with an eSIM by 2022 (refer to the eSim Report for more details).

The embedded cellular connectivity will be driven by two major factors:

  • Regulations for basic connectivity to share location, sensor data and analytics.
  • Operators who are increasing their efforts in this direction to add LTE capabilities to drones.

Operators are quite serious about LTE capable drones and are working with the DFS (German Aviation Authority), EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to leverage LTE connectivity to make drones visible to air traffic controllers, thereby improving aerial safety especially, for TBVOS (True Beyond Visual Line of Sight) commercial applications. LTE connectivity in drones is also a big ARPU play for operators to enable real-time data transfer and analytics. The upcoming commercial use cases would require low latency and high transmission range which can be enabled by a connectivity solution instead of Wi-Fi.

LTE Enabled Drones

  • Some operators such as T-Mobile Germany, Orange, Vodafone, Verizon have already been trialing LTE-based drones and see eSIM capability as a natural implementation path.
  • Vodafone is working in collaboration with EASA to conduct trials for an air traffic control system for drones to avoid collision with planes. For this, the drones would be embedded with a 4G modem and a SIM that would track them accurately up to 50 meters. The technology, if successful, would enable protective geofencing to avoid accidental situations (under Beyond Visible Line of Sight operations) and entry into no-fly zones.
  • T-Mobile Germany has also partnered with Microdrones in cooperation with DFS to improve aerial safety, specifically for commercial operations.
  • Verizon has partnered with DeDrone for exactly the same reasons – to detect, classify and mitigate any drone related potential threats in real-time.

We expect regulations to come into place in the near future for cellular connectivity in drones to mitigate privacy, safety and security concerns.

  • The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is proposing a regulatory framework for technical and operational requirements of drones. The technical requirements entail remote identification of drones.
  • Discussions are going on regarding Drone Identification module under SC 17 standard (developed by ISO) to insert eSIMs to monitor drones. The cellular based connectivity would enable sending ID and location via LTE network for incident tracking which is expected to drive e-Sim adoption.

This will be the first and foremost step towards embedded connectivity within drones. Greater ARPU from real-time data transfer is going to be the next step as those use-cases could be a bit resource intensive and will have significant implications on performance (e.g. battery life). This is one of the reasons, DJI has still not fully committed to add LTE connectivity even to commercial drones for live video streaming use-cases but 5G could change things in a few years (Refer to our 5G Forecast for more details).

 

Anshika is a Senior Analyst with Counterpoint Technology Market Research, based out of Gurgaon. She has more than 10 years of work experience in market research and business intelligence field. She led various research and consulting projects for multiple sectors including BFSI and Telecom. Apart from this, she also has key client handling experience with leading MNCs. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from IMT Ghaziabad, specializing in Finance; and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Hansraj College, Delhi University.

Apple Snack Pack

PREMIUM

Understanding iPhone

Term of Use and Privacy Policy

Counterpoint Technology Market Research Limited

Registration

In order to access Counterpoint Technology Market Research Limited (Company or We hereafter) Web sites, you may be asked to complete a registration form. You are required to provide contact information which is used to enhance the user experience and determine whether you are a paid subscriber or not.
Personal Information When you register on we ask you for personal information. We use this information to provide you with the best advice and highest-quality service as well as with offers that we think are relevant to you. We may also contact you regarding a Web site problem or other customer service-related issues. We do not sell, share or rent personal information about you collected on Company Web sites.

How to unsubscribe and Termination

You may request to terminate your account or unsubscribe to any email subscriptions or mailing lists at any time. In accessing and using this Website, User agrees to comply with all applicable laws and agrees not to take any action that would compromise the security or viability of this Website. The Company may terminate User’s access to this Website at any time for any reason. The terms hereunder regarding Accuracy of Information and Third Party Rights shall survive termination.

Website Content and Copyright

This Website is the property of Counterpoint and is protected by international copyright law and conventions. We grant users the right to access and use the Website, so long as such use is for internal information purposes, and User does not alter, copy, disseminate, redistribute or republish any content or feature of this Website. User acknowledges that access to and use of this Website is subject to these TERMS OF USE and any expanded access or use must be approved in writing by the Company.
– Passwords are for user’s individual use
– Passwords may not be shared with others
– Users may not store documents in shared folders.
– Users may not redistribute documents to non-users unless otherwise stated in their contract terms.

Changes or Updates to the Website

The Company reserves the right to change, update or discontinue any aspect of this Website at any time without notice. Your continued use of the Website after any such change constitutes your agreement to these TERMS OF USE, as modified.
Accuracy of Information: While the information contained on this Website has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, We disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. User assumes sole responsibility for the use it makes of this Website to achieve his/her intended results.

Third Party Links: This Website may contain links to other third party websites, which are provided as additional resources for the convenience of Users. We do not endorse, sponsor or accept any responsibility for these third party websites, User agrees to direct any concerns relating to these third party websites to the relevant website administrator.

Cookies and Tracking

We may monitor how you use our Web sites. It is used solely for purposes of enabling us to provide you with a personalized Web site experience.
This data may also be used in the aggregate, to identify appropriate product offerings and subscription plans.
Cookies may be set in order to identify you and determine your access privileges. Cookies are simply identifiers. You have the ability to delete cookie files from your hard disk drive.