T-Mobile Takes Delivery of Aerialtronics Drone
Photo: Aerialtronics.
This week, telecommunications company T-Mobile took delivery of its first drone, an Altura Zenith, for use in inspections.
The unmanned aircraft will be used by the company to look at its 5,000 antenna masts in the Netherlands. During tests near the Galgenwaard soccer stadium in the city of Utrecht, T-Mobile determined drones cut down on the time it normally takes to inspect cell towers — up to seven days using technicians on cherry pickers.
“In this pilot [program], we flew around the stadium in 15 minutes using HD video on the drone. It was a significant time and cost-saving exercise,” says Jeffrey Leentjes, a network specialist at T-Mobile.
In addition to taking longer, inspecting cell towers manually comes with risks. In 2014, there were 12 mobile tower fatalities.
The Zenith is outfitted with an HT camera, thermal sensors and transmitters to relay the information it gathers.
“Aerialtronics provides a detachable gimbal where we can switch devices quickly. Next to that, safety is important of course. We also wanted a system that is fully approved by the authorities, can fly under different conditions and is robust,” says Leentjes. “The fact that we are stepping into drone technology creates an opportunity to look at the development of the service. I think, in telecoms in general, there will be more utilization of drone technology in future. For T-Mobile and Deutsche Telecom, it's very good to get the experience with Aerialtronics at such an early stage.”
