Nokia expands Drones-as-a-Service partner program in North America

Nokia has announced the extension of a Drones-as-a-Service partner program with existing private wireless partners to provide Nokia Drone Networks benefits to industries in North America. Through this collaboration, enterprises and service providers will be able to rapidly realize the capabilities of drones, in a way that meets the needs of their business as well as benefit from new use cases and revenue streams.

Enterprises can opt to purchase the Nokia Drone Networks industrial grade drone-in-a-box solution or minimize upfront capital expense by leasing, sharing or simply hiring drones for one-off or regularly scheduled flights. Nokia and the members of its partner program will offer bundled service packages tailored to the needs of enterprises, including managing data analytics or drone maintenance. The companies will also manage flight scheduling, working with relevant spectrum and airspace regulators to gain approvals, where required.

Drone service providers will benefit from being able to diversify their offering to more industries and realize new revenue streams. This is made possible through Nokia’s commitment to collaborating with industry partners, allowing users to customize the payloads, to meet their business needs.

Companies that choose to deploy or lease Nokia Drone Networks will benefit from an end-to-end solution, which has recently received certification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for operation in North America.

Nokia Drone Networks uses public and private 4G/LTE and 5G network connectivity for the greatest reliability and safety of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. Operated remotely for one-off or scheduled flights, the solution benefits from a highly ruggedized docking station that doubles as a recharging station. This makes it possible for enterprises to rely on the solution to realize new efficiencies and capabilities such as surveillance at remote facilities, environmental or stockpile monitoring at a mine, managing inspections in hazardous locations or for public safety search and rescue operations.

Deployed in conjunction with Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) and Nokia MX Industrial Edge at their campus network, enterprises will be able to leverage robust, reliable connectivity, service predictability and the ability to process data obtained from the drones in real-time, on-premises to open the door to an array of innovative use cases and accelerate their return on investment.

Stephan Litjens, Vice President of Enterprise Campus Edge Solutions at Nokia, says: “We are pleased to leverage our existing private wireless partnerships, such as the one with DXC Technology to offer Drones-as-a-Service to the North American market. This allows us to offer our innovative solution in a way that meets the complex needs of any enterprise or industry. Through our work with partners across all regions, we’ll maintain a strong collaboration with spectrum and airspace regulators and the ecosystem to ensure we balance innovation with safety for customer flights."

While visiting Nokia in Espoo, to witness the Drone use cases firsthand, the DXC Team stated: "We want our customers to book a drone flight with the simplicity of hailing a ride-share. Enterprises will benefit from simplicity, leveraging a complete FCC certified drone-in-a-box solution provided by a single vendor without headaches as we manage the flight approval for them working with the relevant authorities. They can adopt drones however it makes sense for their business. And those that choose to deploy the drone-in-a-box solution alongside Nokia DAC private wireless will leverage the greatest capabilities, unlocking new use cases for the fastest return on investment."