Rakuten Mobile will use drones to complete inspections of base stations for its mobile network.
The service will be delivered with Rakuten AirMap, which is Rakuten’s sister company under Rakuten Group and provides solutions to support safe and compliant drone operations to enterprises, airspace authorities and drone operators in Japan.
As Rakuten Mobile expands its base station network across Japan, drones will take multi-angle photographs of the newly constructed base stations. In typical completion inspections, an engineer climbs the antenna tower on which the base station is installed and visually inspects the equipment.
Carrying out inspections with drones aims to make the process faster, safer and cheaper.
Drone captures of the base station and surrounding area are shared through Rakuten AirMap’s cloud-based inspection system, allowing staff working on the construction of the base stations to manage and share information efficiently and chronologically.


So far, Rakuten Mobile has conducted limited trials of base station completion inspections using drones in certain areas, and will now fully adopt drones for completion inspections nationwide.

Rakuten Global and Rakuten AirMap are also looking into the use of drone-based inspections during natural disasters and other emergencies.