True launches SkyBridge platform for medical drone deliveries in remote areas

Details: John Tanner; Category: Enterprise Ecosystems; 17 July 2026; 231 views

Thai telco True Corp announced on Thursday it has partnered with the Ministry of Public Health to launch True SkyBridge, an autonomous air logistics management platform designed to support medical drones delivering medical supplies to remote areas.

The prototype SkyBridge platform, designed and developed by True’s Research and Innovation Center, connects hospitals, medical service units, public health personnel and the public to the autonomous air logistics system underlying the drone service.

True SkyBridge supports multi-brand drones and carries full-function AI-driven flight data and safety systems over True’s network, said Ekaraj Panjavinin, head of research and innovation at True Corp.

“True SkyBridge provides end-to-end management of medical transport missions, covering route planning, medical payload quality monitoring, real-time flight tracking, fleet management and control, drone readiness and safety systems, as well as automated documentation that records the time and coordinates throughout each flight,” Ekaraj said in a statement.

True kicked off the launch of True SkyBridge with two live drone flights along different routes in the Pua District of Nan Province, which features mountainous terrain, winding roads along mountainsides and cliffs, and scattered communities, all of which are prone to heavy rainfall, landslides, or flash floods that can disrupt ground transportation routes.

For one route, a drone delivered medicine for patients with non-communicable diseases from Phaya Pha Nong Stadium to Ban Rong Ngae Community Square, then returned with medical samples. The flight covered a round-trip distance of 4 km and took approximately 3.5 minutes, 50% faster than transportation by road which takes around seven minutes.

The second route – which demonstrated the delivery of medicines to a remote area where land transport routes had been cut off – ran across steep mountains, cliffs, and dense forests from Phaya Pha Nong Stadium to Ban Nam Pua School. The round-trip distance was 46 km and took approximately 35 minutes – 70% faster than transportation by road that usually take more than two hours.

“The platform enables the fast and seamless delivery of medicines, medical supplies, and medical samples on every mission. It is also designed to provide high levels of safety and full traceability, with the potential to scale into a nationwide network in the future,” Ekaraj said.

True SkyBridge has regulatory support from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (AEROTHAI, which provides air traffic control and aeronautical communications services) and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

Narin Kalayanamit, an adviser to the public health minister, said True SkyBridge will support Thailand’s medical and public health services by ensuring that everyone has thorough, equitable, and quality access to healthcare services, particularly people in frontier, remote, and underserved areas facing medical access restrictions.

“In the past, flight trials were successfully conducted in coastal areas, which demonstrated a significant reduction in both time and constraints of maritime transportation,” he said. “Therefore, medical drones serve as another approach to elevate public access to healthcare services, while effectively enhancing readiness in handling emergency and disaster situations.”

Narin said the service will be expanded to ten additional remote areas, and further integrated into the healthcare service system.