AT&T wants to kit out aerial drones provide extra coverage at live music events.

Being cut off from your friends at festivals could be a thing of the past thanks to US telecommunications company AT&T, which is proposing the use of drones to boost phone service in areas of high usage.

According to a blog post, the company hopes to kit out drones to provide coverage that can be deployed  “at large events” or in “rapid disaster response” situations. The name for this technology? Flying COWs (cell on wings).

“Imagine you’re at a concert watching your favorite band, and out of the corner of your eye you notice a tethered drone hovering nearby,” says AT&T.

“But this drone isn’t taking photos or videos of the band.  It’s temporarily providing enhanced LTE wireless coverage at the packed venue so you, along with thousands of others in attendance, can simultaneously send photos and videos to share the moment.”

It could be a while before we see COWs flying over our festivals: AT&T has said that it’s currently trialling the use of drones but only to perform aerial inspections of cellular towers.

AT&T’s projected technology could come into opposition with a recent patent awarded to Apple. The company has been granted the rights to an infra red system that can block an audience from taking photos at concerts.

Let’s just hope it works out better than that time Muse tried to fly a drone around one of their concerts. [via The Verge]

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