Tuesday 16 June, 2026
This report consolidates repeated aviation ecosystem demand signals from government agencies, regulators, telecom operators, and industry experts on the cellular capabilities required to safely integrate drones into shared airspace.
Across the GSMA Fusion Aviation Roundtable discussions at MWC Barcelona 2026, four convergence signals emerged consistently across participant groups.
Convergence Themes
Universal Electronic Conspicuity (EC) for Scale
What aviation is asking for: A scalable, affordable way for all aircraft including general aviation and drones to electronically broadcast their position.
Why current approaches struggle: ADS-B systems are expensive for mass adoption and legacy aviation spectrum will not scale cleanly to millions of drones.
Why cellular is being discussed: Participants repeatedly pointed to cellular networks and commercial devices as a practical path to mass-scale airspace visibility.
Security by Design and Anti-Spoofing
What aviation is asking for: Trusted identification and authentication built into the communications layer.
Why it matters: Current drone protocols often lack strong encryption and are vulnerable to spoofing, replay attacks, and jamming.
Directional industry signal: Several participants referenced certificate-based authentication models, including approaches analogous to cellular and C-V2X security architectures.
Seamless Cross-Border Roaming
What aviation is asking for: Continuous, near-instant network transitions across international borders.
Why it matters: Drones can cross borders in seconds; roaming handovers that take a minute or more create unacceptable operational gaps.
Common direction raised in discussions: An IoT-style roaming model in which devices are not operationally constrained by a single home network during flight.
Network Predictability and Transition Zones at Altitude
What aviation is asking for: High-fidelity understanding of network behaviour in three-dimensional airspace.
Why it matters: Operators need to identify transition zones where terrestrial coverage changes or drops out and where handovers to other systems may occur.
Operational implication: Extensive measurement, mapping, and predictive coverage modelling are required before flights.
The aviation industry is not asking operators for connectivity alone; it is asking for a globally interoperable, trusted coordination layer for airspace delivered through the network.
Strategic Takeaways
- Break the adoption deadlock: Regulators need evidence before mandating technologies, while operators need proven business cases before deploying at scale. Joint testing and data sharing are therefore critical.
- Prioritise global interoperability: Aviation tracking cannot tolerate border-related service interruptions. Roaming and identity mechanisms must work seamlessly across jurisdictions.
- Treat security as foundational: Identification, authentication, and anti-spoofing capabilities must be designed into the system from the start rather than added later.
Download the full report
For the complete methodology, participant context, and detailed findings, download the Aviation Vertical Convergence Report
