Dive Brief:

• AT&T technicians are now using drones to inspect cell towers for damage and other issues.
• The company says it eventually wants to use artificial-intelligence-equipped drones to assess problems in the field independently.
• A PwC study recently estimated the global market for drone-related business services has an estimated value of over $127 billion.

​

Dive Insight:

Last week, AT&T flew a drone over AT&T Stadium in Dallas to test for holes in its wireless system. The company says technicians can now order drone services to inspect cell towers around the U.S. AT&T hires local vendors to fly the drones.

Use of drones is likely to expand in coming years. United Parcel Service, Walmart and Amazon are reportedly all experimenting with how they might use drones to track warehouse inventory or conduct other activities. As the use of drones expands, it’s unclear who would have responsibility for them in the enterprise.

PwC says drones have the most potential for infrastructure-related duties such as bridge inspections.