Ángel Alvés

I have been working in the field of innovation for 10 years. In this area, we conduct proof-of-concept tests on new technologies in collaboration with our customers to validate their usefulness. In 2019, the first 5G pilot networks were deployed, and one of the first use cases we thought of was connecting a drone via the 5G network, using this technology as an alternative to the traditional radio frequency control normally used to fly it. It was a success. Thanks to the low latency (delay) of the 5G network, we could control the drone from any location, and thanks to its high bandwidth, we could transmit high-quality video in real time. Since that pilot in 2019, we have carried out many others to see how far we could go by connecting drones to our 5G network: live streaming of sporting events, coordination of drones with Smart City elements, infrastructure inspections, crowd control for law enforcement, goods transport, etc. About a year and a half ago, Telefónica made the decision to build a drone service and move from pilot tests to a commercial service, which is what I am working on right now, collaborating with many other areas of Telefónica to build this 5G-based service for our customers.