£5m to ensure drones fly at Altitude

Telecoms giant BT invests in software and infrastructure provider Altitude Angels
By Adam Hill January 13, 2023 Read time: 2 mins
Project Skyway is set to be the largest and longest network of its kind in the world (© Goinyk Volodymyr | Dreamstime.com)

UK telecoms provider BT is behind a £5m deal to scale up the country's drone industry.

Etc., the incubation team in BT Group’s Digital unit, is partnering with Altitude Angel, which provides software and infrastructure to allow drones to fly safely, without a pilot, over large distances.

The idea is to support the development of the UK’s drone superhighway - Project Skyway - set to be the largest and longest network of its kind in the world.

The cash will accelerate the roll-out of Altitude Angel’s Arrow technology, which detects and identifies drones, while also enabling drones to share airspace with crewed aviation safely and securely.

Arrow helps to create a 165-mile drone corridor spanning airspace above Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby - put the plan is grow this to thousands of miles of Skyway infrastructure connecting towns and cities as well as transport and package delivery hubs.

BT will provide connectivity and network infrastructure and maintain Altitude Angel’s Arrow tower network. 

Richard Parker, CEO and founder, Altitude Angel says: "This will provide the UK with the first nationwide drone superhighways, unlocking the potential of this new and innovative technology and revolutionising business operations in countless industries.”

BT and Altitude Angel were involved together in an earlier programme, Project Xcelerate, and Skyway is backed by the UK government’s Future Flight programme.

Networking & Communication Systems

For more information on companies in this article

BT

Related Content

  • Panasonic in Colorado: Rocky mountain way
    December 3, 2018
    Panasonic is at the heart of a C-V2X project which began last year in Colorado. The company’s smart mobility boss Chris Armstrong tells Adam Hill how it is working out Colorado needs traffic and transport solutions – and fast. The US state’s population has grown 50% in the last 20 years and another 50% hike is predicted in the next 20. It also spends more than $13 billion in roadway crash costs each year. In 2015, 546 people died in traffic-related crashes, and more than 3,000 were seriously injured.
    Read More
  • New solutions for catching texting drivers
    October 28, 2016
    Many countries have laws prohibiting texting while driving but enforcement is proving difficult – David Crawford looks at some new approaches being tried by authorities. Finding definitive solutions – technological, regulatory and educational - to the potentially lethal practice of people driving while using mobile phones is proving elusive, while the stakes grow higher.
    Read More
  • Wireless traffic data in real time
    January 31, 2012
    The effect of moving objects on the electromagnetic landscape set up by cellular telephony networks can be detected and interpreted to give real-time traffic data across large geographical areas at low cost. Here, we revisit the Celldar concept. Global economic downturn has pushed public-sector agencies, transport administrations among them, to push even harder for cost efficiencies. Unfortunately, when it comes to transport safety and efficiency the public sector often has to work up to a cost rather than
    Read More
  • US Cities push for smarter poles
    June 25, 2018
    US Cities The need to connect existing infrastructure has led various US transit authorities into imaginative alleyways: David Crawford examines some new roles for street furniture. US cities are vying with each other in developing schemes to create a new generation of connected places. Their strategies include taking advantage of their streetlight poles’ height and ubiquity to give them new roles in supporting intelligent nodes. They are now being equipped for collecting real-time data on key transport
    Read More

Highlighted Content