The devices are fitted with small mobile sites that include a base station and an antenna.

They could also be used to connect remote parts of the UK where coverage is thin.

EE said it planned to deploy such a network in a UK rural area this year.

The drones can stay airborne for up to an hour at a time and the “helikite” balloons for several weeks as they have a tethered power source.

The drone was designed to give short-term targeted coverage to aid search and rescue situations, EE said.

“Innovation is essential for us to go further than we’ve ever gone, and deliver a network that’s more reliable than ever before,” said EE chief executive Marc Allera.

“Rural parts of the UK provide more challenges to mobile coverage than anywhere else, so we have to work harder there – developing these technologies will ultimately help our customers, even in the most hard to reach areas.”

It was the first time this had been tried out in the UK, said Kester Mann, analyst at CCS Insight.

“Everyone immediately thinks of disruptive players like Facebook and Google when it come to things like balloon-based networks. The traditional networks need to step up so they don’t get left behind,” he told the BBC.

Google is developing a network of huge balloons to provide connectivity to rural areas around the world, known as Project Loon.

Last month the tech giant confirmed it had closed its internet drone project, Titan, which was designed to bring the internet to remote rural areas.

Facebook’s Project Aquila involves building solar-powered aircraft which will fly for months at a time above remote places, beaming down an internet connection.

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Colt reported strong top line growth in 2016 and a new executive leadership team has pledged to continue this trend having implemented a strategic and cultural shift in the organisation.

Colt’s operations have been segmented into the core areas of innovation, the Colt IQ Network and improving the customer experience.

There has also been an increase in investment in sales and marketing.

To help deliver the increased network capacity and reach, Colt has appointed a new Chief Commercial Officer, Tom Regent. The company will hire hundreds more staff to support customers.

CEO Carl Grivner (pictured) said: “We are fortunate to not have many of the distractions of our peers, such as wireless, consumer and content.

“This means we can focus on building an intelligent network to meet the businesses requirements of today’s demanding enterprises.

“In fact, we believe our customers, and indeed all our competitors’ customers, should be more demanding of the industry. We are up for the challenge and we are confident we will deliver.”

Grivner added that investing in the Colt IQ Network is vital. It currently spans 24,500 buildings and 700 data centres, and serves, in the main, enterprises with an increasingly global reach while retaining a local presence.

Colt’s investment this year will triple the number of sites across the Colt IQ Network capable of providing 100G enabled Ethernet and IP connectivity, and optical services up to 9.6Tbps capacity per site.

According to Grivner the customer experience matters now more than ever. So Colt will roll out On Demand network services, and also redesign its internal processes and systems to bring service delivery times down from weeks to days and put customers in control. The revamp is critical to managing growth in customer acquisitions, which amounted to 1,700 new customers worldwide in 2016.

“Almost 25 years ago, we emerged as a disruptive challenger in the market, and our mission for 2017 is to increase this challenger status as a digital enabler with global reach and local presence and agility,” added Grivner.

The post Colt pledges to deliver €500m investment in three year expansion plan appeared first on United Networks.