Vodafone and Manna Reach New Heights With Drone Home Delivery Test

Vodafone announced that it has collaborated with Manna Air Delivery in Ireland, a company with six years of experience in urban drone deliveries, to remotely pilot a delivery drone over two kilometres using Vodafone’s mobile network. 

Vodafone has collaborated with Manna Air Delivery in Ireland, a company with six years of experience in urban drone deliveries, to remotely pilot a delivery drone over two kilometres using Vodafone’s mobile network. 

Manna, which has completed approximately 200,000 deliveries, recently worked with Vodafone to test how mobile technology can assist a pilot to operate a drone beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) to increase home deliveries to more places. 

The project supports Vodafone’s wider research into how the mobile network can support communication between multiple commercial drones to enable them to fly safely. This is especially significant as the number of commercial drones in Europe is projected to nearly double to 395,000 by 2030, driven by advancements in drone technology and increasing consumer demand for rapid home delivery. 

During the proof-of-concept test with Manna, Vodafone used the 4G network to gather telemetry data from the drone to track its flight. Vodafone’s network APIs were used by the companies to securely access aerial mobile coverage maps, ensuring a safe and connected flight path for the drone at Manna’s test facility in Moorock, Ireland. 

Alan Hicks, CTO of Manna Drone Delivery, said: “Combining Manna's drone delivery expertise with Vodafone’s technology enables us to track and identify drones via the mobile network, even beyond visual line of sight. This enhances our secure systems for last mile delivery.”

Vodafone has experience in using its network to enhance drone safety and operational efficiency. It has conducted several trials, including the world's first air traffic control drone tracking and safety system, and a test to show how mobile technology can be used to prevent drones from interfering with high-security areas. 

Anthony Chen, Project Lead at Vodafone Business, added: “Our pan-European mobile network allows drones to safely fly longer distances beyond the controller’s vision. It can track drones for urban deliveries, healthcare logistics, or remote land surveys across multiple countries. In the future, we aim to combine low earth orbit satellites with our terrestrial network to monitor thousands of commercial drones safely, wherever they fly.”

Ultimately, Vodafone hopes to support a long-range air traffic management system to control the increase in BVLOS drones and other airspace users. This would enable two-way communication with drones using Vodafone’s network to limit collisions between multiple airspace users on a pan-European scale. 

Source: Vodafone media announcement