The usefulness of drones cannot be expounded enough. Not only do they make great tools for photography and videography, but they are also excellent for surveillance work, especially when it comes to going to locations that humans would have a hard time reaching, or if it might be too dangerous for humans.A recent example of how useful drones are would be in the case of Hurricane Matthew in which following the aftermath, Verizon has actually deployed the use of drones for cell site inspections. The drones are used to inspect sites that are in difficult to reach locations and will be able to report back vital information on any equipment that might have been damaged following the hurricane.
According to Nicki Palmer, Chief Network Officer, “We understand how vital wireless communication is to connect with loved ones, reach out for help and start the long process of recovery during and after an event like Hurricane Matthew. While we were able to access most sites quickly to assess damage, some sites were not accessible to us due to extreme flooding. We are very pleased that we now have this new tool to add to our already extensive list of preparatory and recovery efforts to help inspect our network assets and expedite recovery time.”
This isn’t the first time that the carrier has made use of drones for cell site inspections as earlier this year, the company ran a trial in New Jersey. Last week the carrier had also run a trial in which via a drone, the carrier was able to provide 4G LTE coverage in areas where no wireless coverage was available.