AT&T’s “Flying COWs” Bring Internet to the Boonies – Review Geek

Individuals who reside in rural places could gain 5G entry thanks to an experimental new drone. The AT&T 5G Traveling COW broadcasts a solid 5G signal in a vary of about 10 miles. It is a stunning and strange accomplishment, partly aided by tethering the drone for electric power.

The strange identify, “Flying COW,” is basically an acronym for Traveling Cell on Wings. It is pretty much a floating cell tower. AT&T suggests that the drones can be operated from thousands of miles absent, perhaps opening the door to large-velocity cell assistance in even the most remote or dangerous locations.

AT&T formerly utilised LTE Traveling COWs to deliver world-wide-web access immediately after normal disasters, these as Hurricane Michael—there’s many years of function at the rear of this tech. But owing to the brief assortment of 5G alerts, the 5G Flying COW is not precisely suited for catastrophe relief. So, what’s the stage?

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Very well, AT&T desires the 5G Traveling COW to permanently extend its network. In accordance to Art Pregler, UAS Method Director at AT&T, long term COWs could “autonomously fly without tethers for months without landing, using photo voltaic electric power to give protected, reputable, and rapidly 5G connectivity to huge figures of end users around vast geographic spots.”

Scientists at AT&T are at the moment doing work on an untethered edition of the drone, nevertheless of course, developments in battery technology may perhaps be necessary to use these things for a lot more than an hour. Sticking a drone in the air for “months with out landing” is fairly the lofty target.

Even weirder, AT&T says it’s “building a litter of RoboDogs” that can accomplish look for and rescue missions or disable bombs. The firm talked about this offhandedly in a press release and didn’t supply any shots of the RoboDogs.

Supply: AT&T