Vodafone Trials Optical Broadband Drones to Fix Mobile Masts

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Vodafone has revealed that they’ve begun “piloting” (no pun intended, we think) a new type of done that is designed to help restore connectivity to mobile masts, such as when their underground data capacity cables are cut or damaged. The drones employ a special optical wireless link.

The drones, which could also be deployed as part of disaster recovery situations, are currently being tested in Seville (Spain) and use a “wireless optical connectivity” link that has been developed by the Taara Project as part of the Google X programme.

Readers might recall that we wrote about Taara’s ability to deliver data at speeds of up to 20Gbps (Gigabits per second) over distances of up to 20 kilometres back in 2021 (here), but that was when it was being deployed via fixed platforms (e.g. masts or buildings). Sticking the same technology on a drone is an order of magnitude more challenging.

“In a test earlier this month in Seville, Spain, Vodafone worked with Taara … to demonstrate how two industrial-grade drones equipped with Taara’s light beam terminals could be used to deliver a temporary connection. In the test, one drone was securely tethered to a mast, and the other to a nearby Vodafone data transport hub,” said the announcement.

The drones equipped with Taara “briefly established a two-way connection” over a distance of 3km, although it’s not clear how stable this was or what data speeds they were able to achieve. But the test demonstrated how novel combinations of new technologies could potentially be used in future to address infrastructure challenges.

The backhaul fibre optic cables that link their masts are usually buried in the ground, making them susceptible to damage by mechanical diggers and sometimes even vandalism. Across Europe, Vodafone on average deals with between 75 and 100 such cable breaks every year.

Weather Sensing

As a side note, Vodafone separately revealed that they were working with the European Space Agency (ESA), and other governmental departments in the UK, on a different project to “gather accurate rainfall measurements using data from the thousands of microwave links“, which are sometimes used, across Europe, to connect mobile masts (often has a backup or alternative to fibre).

Rain and other forms of precipitation in the atmosphere can absorb and scatter microwave radio signals, reducing their strength. The interference this creates is typically considered a negative thing, which often reduces the performance of such connections. But Vodafone has realised that the data they collect on this (checked every 15 minutes as part of network compensation changes) can be turned into a “giant weather gauge” for both urban and rural areas.

The data this delivers could be used to support the information that is already being collected via millions of Vodafone’s worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) environmental sensors. Clever stuff, particularly as their network often covers areas that are out of reach of existing weather observation posts.

Vodafone plans to showcase all this early next month at the Mobile World Congress (MWC25) event.