Communication brainstorm in a dream

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How difficult or is it even possible to communicate with a drone (any drone) over the existing cellular infrastructure in ones country? Could near unlimited distance (one battery) and FPV be a possibility via tower hopping? Obviously the cellular provider would need to cooperate, but is it possible from the technical side of things.

I had a dream that my bird was connected to cell towers and I could fly anywhere in battery range.
 
gfredrone said:
How difficult or is it even possible to communicate with a drone (any drone) over the existing cellular infrastructure in ones country? Could near unlimited distance (one battery) and FPV be a possibility via tower hopping? Obviously the cellular provider would need to cooperate, but is it possible from the technical side of things.

I had a dream that my bird was connected to cell towers and I could fly anywhere in battery range.

Very possible (been done) and no cooperation from cellular provider required (at least: don't ask, don't tell). There's a demo somewhere on youtube (probably a couple years old now) of some cellular HW provider (people that provide the 3g/4g hardware) testing the range of a single mobile cell site by controlling a quad. I've done FVP and control essentially via a video call :). The thing is, why bother, all it does is limit where you can fly. Ex: in my case I used Sprint, out in the country or over the ocean (where I liked to fly long distance FPV) the 3g/4g connection was not as good as what I can do on my own. The problem was not losing the aircraft, it was just that the connection was not as good / manageable as other options.

I did one interesting thing before abandoning it (at least I thought it was interesting). I have property in the Florida Keys, I have HD surveillance cameras around the property (so I can look at the water when I'm feeling down or use it as live wallpaper / screensaver ;-) ) I thought, how cool would it be to fly around the property and over the water whenever I want. So I did it (basically, why not). Yes it was fun and a little novel, but ultimately pointless (requiring someone to be your ground crew.)

I guess I said all that to let you know that if you want to do it, live the dream, it can be done.
 
Good info. Just goes to show nothing is new. Sooooo, how do we get satellite up/downlink access... That's where the real fun begins! :)
 

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