DALLAS, April 23, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — SqwaQ today revealed the completion of a 1000-mile flight across the United States using its new SqwaQbox BVLOS command and control drone link, engineered with Sierra Wireless cellular modules. To be debuted at the upcoming AUVSI Drone Show in Chicago, April 30th, 2019, this new technology delivers the reliable, multi-redundant connectivity needed for commercial drones and air taxis to fly safely beyond visual line of sight, and even across vast distances.

The SqwaQbox was flown over 1000 nautical miles across five U.S. States and 60 counties, encountering sun, rain, lightning, fog and high winds. Throughout the two-day journey, the SqwaQbox remained connected to multiple SqwaQ LTE networks simultaneously, proving the reliability and range of its capabilities. The flight traversed terrain ranging from sea level two miles offshore, to congested urban cities, mountain peaks exceeding 5000 ft altitudes, and remote rural areas, without any disruption in service.

Ross Gray, VP Product Management and OEM Solutions for Sierra Wireless, said, “Cellular connectivity is key to innovative applications like the SqwaQbox being able to stay connected while pushing the limits of distance, terrain and environmental conditions. Sierra Wireless solutions provide the reliability that SqwaQ needs for its customers to operate drones safely beyond visual line of sight and to integrate with manned air traffic in the future.”

SqwaQ has global bandwidth agreements to provision prioritized 3G and 4G LTE data services on 620 cellular networks across more than 130 countries, with speeds of 20Mbps up to 50Mbps. Ultimately, drones, air taxis, helicopters and other low flying aircraft all need to share the same airspace between 200-1000 feet altitude. Rather than segregating the airspace, which the drone industry has failed to prove as a viable and safe plan, SqwaQ makes integration of all aircraft a reality and automates collision detection, separation and transparency of operations.

Ted Lindsley, CEO of SqwaQ said “We’re very happy with the results of this flight. SqwaQ has solved the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) and data-link obstacles restricting drones for the past decade. After recent meetings with drone OEMs and helicopter manufacturers, it’s clear that our early adopters will dominate unmanned air operations, not just beyond line of sight, but beyond city, county and state borders.”

Sierra Wireless is a $465M multinational wireless communications manufacturer headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. SqwaQ is a Dallas, Texas based MVNO data services provider servicing high bandwidth industrial IoT customers like drones, air taxis, helicopters, emergency response, disaster management, broadcasting and infrastructure inspection.

SOURCE SqwaQ