Qualcomm, AT&T to test drones' capabilities on 4G LTE networks using Qualcomm's Snapdragon Flight development platform
Qualcomm said its researchers will team up with AT&T to test how unmanned aircraft systems can utilize cellular networks for processing, navigation and flying beyond line of sight.
Context & Ripple Effects
This test is the second carrier-drone pairing announced within months: AT&T had already lined up an LTE-for-drones trial with Intel earlier in 2016, so today's deal puts two rival silicon vendors inside the same carrier's labs. For Qualcomm, it is a field trial for Snapdragon Flight, the drone-optimized board built on the Snapdragon 801 that it unveiled a year prior and has since been shopping to manufacturers.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm gains real flight-test data on whether its Snapdragon Flight platform can handle processing, navigation and beyond-line-of-sight flying over a live carrier network — evidence it needs to sell the board into commercial drone designs.
- AT&T now runs parallel drone programs with two chipmakers (Intel and Qualcomm), letting it compare how different modems and platforms behave on its LTE network before committing.
Second-order effects
- The carrier land-grab intensifies: Verizon has already moved to sell dedicated drone data plans and to test drones that act as aerial cell towers, so AT&T's Qualcomm trial is also a defensive move to keep pace on both fronts — drones as subscribers and drones as infrastructure.
- Drone manufacturers get a credible alternative to Wi-Fi and point-to-point radio links, shifting design decisions toward cellular-connected aircraft and pressuring connectivity suppliers who cannot demonstrate carrier-grade trials.
Third-order effects
- If LTE proves reliable enough for beyond-line-of-sight flight, carriers become gatekeepers for commercial drone operations — and AT&T's later work flying drones to restore LTE in disaster areas shows the same relationship running in reverse, with aircraft extending the network rather than just riding on it.
- Regulators weighing beyond-line-of-sight rules gain a technical reference point: network coverage and handoff quality become part of the safety case, tying drone certification to carrier build-out.
The trend: Cellular carriers are positioning 4G LTE as the control plane for commercial drones — courting aircraft as paying subscribers first, then as flying extensions of the network itself.