Nokia has teamed up with Swisscom Broadcast to deploy a nationwide Drones-as-a-Service network across Switzerland.

The vendor plans to deploy 300 Nokia Drone-in-a-Box units to support emergency response, perimeter protection, and infrastructure inspection, as well as to protect public safety workers.

It's Nokia's second nationwide deployment of its Drone Networks project, following a similar rollout for Belgium's Citymesh last year.

Nokia said that the drones will support Switzerland's public safety and Industry 4.0 efforts.

The drones, which are operated remotely, are able to gather relevant information within the first minutes following an emergency, enhancing first responders' situational awareness.

To access the nationwide drone network, public safety agencies in Switzerland can request a drone flight, which Nokia likens to being similar to a ride-sharing service, from Swisscom Broadcast.

"They will also be backed up by a service portfolio with expertise, compliance, data collection and analysis of the collected data from Nokia and Swisscom Broadcast," said Nokia, which said it expects the deployment to be available in all areas of Switzerland.

The drones will also boost worker safety within the Swiss Industry such as inspecting tall or hard-to-reach infrastructure, eliminating the need for workers to climb or walk in hazardous areas.

Nokia adds that its drones support the onboarding of additional applications for industrial customers with Edge computing needs, such as creating 3D maps or detecting assets.

“We are pleased to select Nokia as a partner for this important infrastructure project in Switzerland," said Dominik Müller, CEO at Swisscom Broadcast.

"Together, we can speed up the go-to-market of our Drones-as-a-Service offering to our customers in the industrial and public safety landscape in Switzerland."

Raghav Sahgal, president of cloud and network services at Nokia, added: “Nokia Drone Networks solution enables large-scale projects as it incorporates our mission-critical industrial Edge (MXIE) technology to power its advanced computing functions and software."