Deutsche Telekom, the integrated telecommunications company and DFS, the German air navigation service provider, have announced the founding of their joint venture Droniq on Wednesday, May 29. Droniq provides a technical platform to track drones, enabling drone flights beyond the visual line of sight of the pilot in the future.
DFS and Deutsche Telekom have developed a technology that uses the mobile communications network to track unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly known as drones. This puts in place one of the central preconditions to be able to safely operate drones across larger distances, and not just in close vicinity to the pilot. Delivering this precondition is a necessary step for the economic operation of unmanned aircraft systems. “Our technology finally makes it possible to fully exploit the potential offered by drones operated in a professional setting. With Droniq, we have combined the aviation expertise of DFS with Deutsche Telekom’s competence in mobile communications,” said Tim Höttges, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Deutsche Telekom AG.
The core of the product offering is a UAS Traffic Management System (UTM). This system processes the position data of drones and displays them together with the tracking data of manned aircraft. In this way, a complete air situation display is created. The UTM system also offers additional functions for the safe operation of drones in German airspace, including registration, mission planning and an automated process for obtaining any permissions required for a particular mission. “Droniq offers an entry into the commercial operation of unmanned aircraft systems, especially for drone flights beyond the visual line of sight. That is why we are introducing the first operational UTM system in Germany on the market to integrate drones safely and fairly into airspace,” said Klaus-Dieter Scheurle, CEO of DFS.
