Rakuten Using Drones to Enable Base Station Inspections

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. is collaborating with Rakuten Group company Rakuten AirMap, Inc., which provides solutions supporting safe and compliant drone operations to enterprises, airspace authorities and drone operators in Japan, in using drones to conduct completion inspections of base stations for its mobile network.

As Rakuten Mobile expands its base station network across Japan, drones will take multi-angle photographs of the newly constructed base stations.

In typical completion inspections, an engineer climbs the antenna tower on which the base station is installed and visually inspects the equipment.

However, these inspections raise a number of concerns regarding safety, the time required to carry out the inspections and personnel costs.

By carrying out the work with drones, completion inspections can be conducted in a shorter amount of time, more efficiently and with a higher degree of safety.

Completion inspections will be conducted using AirMap’s TowerSight, a unified system that allows tower companies and MNOs to transform their tower inspections using automated drone workflows.

To date, Rakuten Mobile has conducted limited trials of base station completion inspections using drones in certain areas, and will now fully adopt drones for completion inspections nationwide.

By using drones in completion inspections, Rakuten Mobile aims to improve the efficiency of base station construction and accelerate the expansion of its network area.

Drone captures of the base station and surrounding area are shared through Rakuten AirMap’s cloud-based inspection system, allowing staff working on the construction of the base stations to manage and share information efficiently and chronologically.

Rakuten AirMap has been instrumental in establishing the infrastructure for safe and scalable drone use in Japan and will leverage its expertise in completion inspections to contribute to the growth of drone applications in business.

The two companies are also looking into the use of drone-based inspections during natural disasters and other emergency situations.

Rakuten Mobile will continue to leverage drones and a variety of technologies to create safe, secure and easy-to-use services that offer a greater level of convenience to the lives of its customers.