Those that dwell in rural areas may achieve 5G entry due to an experimental new drone. The AT&T 5G Flying COW broadcasts a powerful 5G sign inside a variety of about 10 miles. It’s a shocking and unusual achievement, partially aided by tethering the drone for energy.
The bizarre identify, “Flying COW,” is definitely an acronym for Flying Cell on Wings. It’s actually a floating cell tower. AT&T says that the drones may be operated from hundreds of miles away, probably opening the door to high-speed cell service in even essentially the most distant or harmful areas.
AT&T beforehand used LTE Flying COWs to supply web entry after natural disasters, corresponding to Hurricane Michael—there’s years of labor behind this tech. However as a result of quick vary of 5G alerts, the 5G Flying COW isn’t precisely suited to catastrophe aid. So, what’s the purpose?
Nicely, AT&T desires the 5G Flying COW to completely broaden its community. Based on Artwork Pregler, UAS Program Director at AT&T, future COWs may “autonomously fly with out tethers for months with out touchdown, utilizing solar energy to supply safe, dependable, and quick 5G connectivity to giant numbers of customers over vast geographic areas.”
Researchers at AT&T are at present engaged on an untethered model of the drone, although in fact, advances in battery know-how could also be required to make use of this stuff for greater than an hour. Sticking a drone within the air for “months with out touchdown” is kind of the lofty aim.
Even weirder, AT&T says it’s “constructing a litter of RoboDogs” that may carry out search and rescue missions or disable bombs. The corporate talked about this offhandedly in a press release and didn’t present any images of the RoboDogs.