• Drone country Germany: almost half a million drones in Germany’s airspace by 2025
• More and more drones in commercial use for logistics & industry
• Vodafone & UPLIFT partner Dimetor launch DroNet, a digital risk check solution
• The goal: speed up approval processes & make drone flights safer with anonymised movement data from the mobile network

With DroNet, Vodafone and Dimetor are launching the industry’s first digital data service for risk-checking commercial drone flights on 23 March 2023. Through a digital interface, operators and licensing bodies can use Vodafone’s drone service to assess ground and connectivity risk using anonymised movement data from the mobile network. DroNet thus provides answers to the questions: How many people are below the flight path? And how stable is the mobile radio connection between pilot and drone? This should speed up the approval process and make drone flights safer.
Time machines, hoverboards and lightning things – not all inventions from the world of science fiction actually make the leap into reality. But there are almost as many that are now simply indispensable in our everyday lives. Smartphones and video calls, for example. And probably soon also drones. According to the Unmanned Aviation Association, the number of drones in Germany’s airspace is expected to increase to around 450,000 by 2025. The main driver of this development: the commercial drone market. After all, it will be impossible to imagine industry and logistics without these unmanned flying objects in the future as smart, efficient and resource-saving little helpers. To ensure that the advantages outweigh the risks, e.g. from crashes or collisions, the EU has defined clear rules for drone flights of all kinds.

According to the Unmanned Aviation Association, there will be 450000 drones in Germany’s airspace by 2025.
Safety in drone flights – on the ground and in the air
Thus, flights with the greatest efficiency potential for commercial use – i.e. flights over longer distances and thus out of the pilot’s line of sight, often automated or even autonomous – belong to the flights requiring approval. In the case of such a permit, two criteria in particular are examined to assess the risk:

1. How many people are below the defined flight path?
2. Is mobile connectivity on the defined flight path sufficient and without interruptions?

Safe drone flights: With DroNet, Vodafone & Dimetor are launching the first digital risk check data service for commercial drone flights. © Vodafone

It currently takes several weeks for such an approval process to be completed with the answers to these questions. Not least because providing and checking the answers has so far been very time-consuming.

We want to help speed up the approval process for drone flights in Germany.

Michael Reinartz Head of Innovation