Drones subgroup

The 5G for Smart Communities (5GSC) Drones Subgroup session, took place on July 10, 2025, was chaired by Tom Collins (Citymesh) and explored a wide range of technical, regulatory, and operational challenges, including:

• Access to infrastructure: availability and rights to use towers and supporting assets.

• Spectrum allocation and management for reliable and scalable drone connectivity.

• Safety awareness: enhancing public and institutional understanding of 5G's safety profile.

• Power requirements and energy constraints of 5G-enabled drone systems.

• Compliance with aviation and drone regulations, including the operation of autonomous drones.

• Network architecture challenges: ensuring seamless connectivity, roaming, and integration between private and public 5G SA networks.

• Building awareness and stakeholder engagement around drone use and capabilities.

• Rapid technology evolution and its impact on shifting requirements and long-term planning.

• Technical documentation and practices to overcome common implementation hurdles.

Additional topics included insights from ongoing projects, anti-drone security solutions, and synergies with EU programmes such as CEF Digital and SNS-JU. Namely, we heard from:

• Didier Flander (Numerisat) who introduced the smartmountain5G project and the convergence of satellites and 5G private services.

• Heikki Almay (Poutanet) who introduced the CAREWINGS project.

• Goradz Mirkovski, Dimetor who introduced the Airborne RF project.

We also heard from:

• Alain Verheyden from the Flanders Smart Fields Project

• Inga Barisa, Staņislavs Šeiko, and Vladimirs Petrovs from the City of Riga's 5G4LIFE project,

Please click here for all the event material.