Drones have begun to be used to quickly install wireless bridges in damaged internet cables

On February 20, 2025, Vodafone announced the start of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to quickly restore communication in the event of damage to Internet cables. Special drones are capable of forming a wireless bridge - a temporary optical connection over the air.

The system is based on Taara technology - a project of the innovative X laboratory owned by Google. The Taara platform uses beams of light to provide high-bandwidth wireless communications over long distances. Data is transmitted between two small terminals that contain sensors and mirrors to track and correct the beam. It is important that the signal between Taara terminals is not interrupted, so they are placed on towers, pillars or roofs of buildings. Even if the tower swings due to wind or a bird is in the path of the beam, communication remains stable thanks to special algorithms that control the operation of the guidance and tracking system.

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Фото: Vodafone

The Vodafone complex involves the use of industrial drones equipped with Taara terminals. Such drones may be operatively directed to the location where the cable is damaged to form an optical communication channel. Vodafone showed how one of the UAVs can be launched to a mobile tower and the other to the nearest node of the transport communication network to create a temporary wireless bridge. During the experiment, the distance between the terminals was about 3 km.

According to laboratory X, Taara technology is capable of providing bidirectional bandwidth up to 20 Gbps, while the range reaches 20 km. The advantage of the Vodafone solution is the speed and ease of deployment, which is important in emergency and critical situations.^[1]

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