Nokia partnered with test and measurement company Rohde & Schwarz to the explore feasibility of incorporating its technology into the vendor’s drone platform to develop an offering for site inspections of ports, mines and other hard to reach locations.

The plan includes integrating Rohde & Schwarz’s QualiPoc software into Nokia’s Drone Networks platform, which includes the vendor’s drones, digital automation cloud private wireless network and MX industrial edge components.

Drones will have embedded 4.9G/LTE and 5G network measurement software instead of the current method of attaching smartphones.

Nokia stated using software reduces the drone’s weight and power consumption to enable longer flight times for measurement activities.

The vendor cited potential for operators, “private wireless partners and enterprises” to gain a “deeper knowledge of their wireless network coverage and performance for more efficient” use of assets.

It explained next step will be early trials for customers to collect data and measure outdoor or underground network experience and quality in real time.

The companies will also work on allowing enterprises to use their own site inspection drones to collect performance data about their private networks in beyond-line-of-sight locations.