Docomo, STP To Test Drone-Based Telecom Tower Inspection Service In Indonesia

Japanese operator NTT Docomo and Indonesian telecom tower company Solusi Tunas Pratama (STP) have agreed to test a service dubbed ‘docomo sky for Tower Inspection’ in Indonesia. The service uses drones to photograph base stations and telecom towers and transmit the information to a command center in real time. The partners hope to expand the scope of the test to include other locations and facilities prior to launching a full-scale commercial service in the first half of this year.

The system being tested is based on an operational drone-based tower inspection system developed by Docomo for its commercial network throughout Japan, and supports the “docomo sky” ground control station (GCS) app for assistance in inspection tasks, enabling drone operators to input flight data. For the test, Docomo will provide its cloud-based platform for operational support and data analysis. The drones fly automatically, take photos and transmit the images via the platform in real time, enabling technicians to inspect the towers via the docomo sky web browser immediately.

The service is also expected to support efforts to speed up procedures for inspecting and restoring telecom facilities in Indonesia whenever a natural disaster occurs.―Telecompaper