Estimating the Benefits of a Multi-Operator Approach to Enhance Cellular Connectivity of Drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become essen-tial tools in various industries, offering real-time data acquisition, intricate task implementation, and high-definition imaging. How-ever, ensuring consistent and reliable connectivity for UAV remains a significant challenge, both in remote and densely populated areas. To enhance their cellular connectivity, we studied the potential of using multiple mobile network operators (MNOs). We proposed a simplified connectivity scoring system allowing to estimate connectivity based on open datasets. We generated random UAV trajectories across cities of different size and measured the performances of single MNO approach and multiple-operator approaches. Our findings suggest that using a multi-operator approach could improve the connectivity from 7 to 13% on the studied case.