Telecom equipment giant Nokia said it has formed an agreement with Citymesh, a Belgium-based telecom operator, to supply 70 of its 5G Nokia Drone Network platforms.
These drone-in-a-box units will be used to blanket Belgium with a 5G automated drone grid to speed up resource mobilizations in emergency events. Nokia launched the Drone Networks platforms earlier this month to meet growing demands on smart cities, public safety agencies and more.
Citymesh said it will deploy the 70 drones in 35 emergency zones across the country and will gather information in the critical 15-minute period immediately following a call where the units may be needed. The Belgium telecom will pair the drones with first responder teams that will be equipped to respond to each situation if it happens.
According to Nokia, Belgium can receive more than two million emergency service calls a year where police and fire are dispatched. Often this comes without any data or incomplete data that hinders responses and response times.
Additionally, pilots of the drones will be able to operate all day and dispatch drones from docking stations across Belgium.
The drone-in-a-box solution includes:
- Nokia drones
- Docking station
- AI-enhanced thermal imaging
- Dual gimbal camera
- Edge cloud processing
The drones can capture real-time aerial footage of smoke plumes, fire parameters, location of people and location of assets and natural resources informing emergency responders to better plan action to save lives or limit damage, Nokia said.
