Cellular-connected Drones Arriving fast, Will support embedded SIMs

New Delhi, July 16: More than 13 percent of drones will support embedded SIMs and advanced cellular connectivity by 2022 globally, a new report has said. The drone market is expanding owing to the rise in a number of commercial applications and cellular connectivity will be essential for emerging use-cases like live-video streaming, real-time monitoring, and delivery through drones.

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,” said Anshika Jain, research analyst at Counterpoint Research.

The embedded cellular connectivity will be driven by two major factors — regulation for basic connectivity to share location, sensor data and analytics and operators who are increasing their efforts in this direction to add LTE capabilities to drones.

Operators are working with the DFS (German Aviation Authority), EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to leverage LTE connectivity to make drones visible to air-traffic controllers. (IANS)