PLDT Inc. and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) are looking into using drones to inspect its cellular sites in Metro Manila.
The two companies successfully completed proof of concept (PoC) of drone-aided digital inspection of cellular sites in Metro Manila for more efficient and environmentally friendly network operations.
The PoC, conducted in a number of Smart towers in Quezon City, Valenzuela and Caloocan, was held with vHive and their local counterpart Amdocs using drone technology to capture multiple cell site information and produce “digital twins” of these network towers.
The use of autonomous drone technology in capturing network tower information is seen to later replace the time-consuming, dangerous, and manual task of climbing each and every tower to gather and record data.
Turning the drone-captured images into a digital twin of the tower with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will also enable Smart to build a single source of field-based truth across the entire Smart network and facilitate faster data-driven decision-making.
Digital inspection will also decrease the group’s fuel consumption with less frequent site visits, thereby helping reduce its carbon footprint.
“Digital Inspection is a good example of how we are holistically transforming every aspect of our network to a future state through new ways of working and using automation to evolve our operations,” said Eric Santiago, first vice president and head of Network at PLDT and Smart.
“This is a step towards Smart’s vision of being the best in customer experience by building a fully automated, intelligent, highly efficient network, and putting in place sustainable network elements and operations,” Santiago added.
Digital Inspection is one of the building blocks of PLDT and Smart’s future mode of operations. It is a critical component of the group’s network transformation program to advance into a fully automated and autonomous network – a testament to its continuing efforts to maintain network superiority to elevate customer experience.
Smart is also looking to use 5G to enhance this process in the future, as the digital data from the drones can also be sent directly and in real-time for analysis via Smart’s 5G base stations, which have been rolled out nationwide.
This will further improve the production of the network Digital Twin and increase the overall efficiency of Smart systems.
PLDT operates the country’s most extensive fiber infrastructure with more or less 1.09 million kilometers as of end-September 2022, including domestic and international fiber. This fiber network supports Smart’s mobile network that covers 97 percent of the population with 3G, 4G/LTE and 5G services.
