A Technological and Business Perspective on Connected Drones for 6G and Beyond Mobile Wireless Communications

Mobile Wireless Communications (MWC) is among the top runners of the technologies that have influenced the global techno-socio-economic stratum. In the past three decades, the MWC technology has undergone five leaps, often referred to as "Generations", that have led certain new elements to be appended and made redundant. From a mere broadcaster to cellular and then to a cell-less architecture, the MWC is witnessing a total phase shift. On the other side, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), aka drones, were initially targeted to be used only as commercial and short-route delivery devices. However, their usage is being explored in MWC activities where drones are being tested in cellular networks as Aerial Base Stations (ABSs) forming Aerial Radio Architecture (ARA), suggesting a new ICT paradigm. In this paper, we have investigated and discussed a compelling question on how ABSs can contribute to the future 6G & Beyond (6G +) wireless communications with a sneak and dive into a probable heterogeneous UAV network paradigm in the future network generations to cater to problems like Place Time Coverage and Capacity (PTC2). We explore the business aspects of considering ARA for the 6G & 6G + services through a generic value proposition business model. Lastly, we discuss multi-business models and prospects of 6G ARA globally, particularly for overly populated countries, emphasizing the driving functions considering PTC2 problems in densely packed urban spaces, UAV-space regulation framework, and applications where 6G ARA drones can be deployed to generate profitable businesses with alignment to the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals.