Telstra taps drones to improve network repair times

Australia’s Telstra has revealed plans to use drone technology to improve network resilience and disaster readiness during the tropical state of Queensland’s upcoming storm season.

The operator will use drones as an “eye in the sky” to help technicians inspect local base stations following a storm or cyclone, checking for damage before technicians are deployed on-site for repairs.

According to Telstra, this will decrease the time needed to conduct repairs following a natural disaster related outage.

Drones from 3D Robotics fitted with sophisticated cameras and capable of flying up to 120 meters high will be used to look for damage to network assets.

Telstra previously used a drone to check for damage to mobile infrastructure following bushfires in another state in late 2015.

“With more than 8,500 mobile network sites around Australia, delivering coverage spanning 2.4 million square kilometers, our mobile network is the largest in the country,” Telstra group managing director for networks Mike Wright said.

“The maintenance of our network is key to ensuring customers get the best possible service available and using drones is revolutionizing the way we inspect base stations.”