Softbank’s high height stage station launches

with more than 8,000 starlink satellite In the sky TodayThe low-earth class can look like a place to connect the Internet and the next generation of cellphone customers. However, some players are keeping their stakes a little closer on the ground.

Starts next year, Tokyo Softbank corp A prototype 4G and 5G phone and broadband service will smile Stratosphere Japanese end-users. Floating 20 kilometers above Earth, the company’s airplane-based mast will use energy regeneration technology and new allocated spectrum. And the technique may eventually pose a real, competitive threat to satellite-based platforms such as Starlink.

Japanese telecom giant announced Previous month It will get special rights to deploy stratospheric, light-to-hwa crafts Japan. Softbank’s PGiving the commercial aircraft “Tower” 4G and 5G cellphone services again, the company said, will come in 2026. The solar-operated aircraft, developed by Moriyarti, NM-based. ScyyeMore than 20 successful test flights have already been completed. In the same press announcement, Softbank also described its plans to use heavy, fixed-wing Uncontrollable air vehicle The Japanese company has developed.

A technical blueprint for the stratosphere

Unlike softbank system Fixed-wing signal repters, SCEYE airship will be an autonomally pilot cell tower that operates below the outer location, but is still above the weather. Airship will be used in the same type of base station in terrestrial cell towers (called) 4g enodeb,5g YesNodb), As maintenance of the global broadband standards, as maintenance Third generation participation projectOr 3gpp.

“Mobile phone does not know the difference between our platform and a tower,” says Mikel Weserguard FriendsenCEO of STEYE. “We only plugs into the existing infrastructure and work under the same 3GPP protocol.”

The aircraft of SCEYE uses advanced antenna system that enables the exact steering of the signal. Also known as beamforming, this 5G technology helps a network cover wider areas or, on the contrary, focuses on a tight cone to the bandwidth, which is based on demand. The company reports that their system is below 20 milliseconds. Which will put them ahead of Starlink, which today saves a network 45 ms delayAccording to a recent survey.

“This is not a relay system, we are base stations, which are capable of responding to the demand for network from stratosphere,” says Friendsen.

With a payload capacity of 250 kg and 10 kW onboard solar energy capacity, the aircraft can provide electricity to its telecom suite, but the station-keip is also something that is neither anything. Balloon (It can get flow with wind) nor fixed wing UAV (constrained by limited payload and power).

This is why the progression of the SCEYE in materials has been important for high altitude endurance flights. According to the company, the fabrics with aircraft of aircraft are five times stronger in mass per unit mass than traditional high -height platform systems (aka HAPS) content. The contents of the STEYE are also 1,500 times more gas-tang, as well as more resistant to both UV and ozone damage.

“There is a lot of overlap between our work on extreme sports like Cups or Formula One in the US and HAPS,” said Friendsen who recruited engineers from both regions. “It is about pushing all the material to the extent, safely.”

But even using such a super-computer for aircraft skin, demanding more efficiency and innovations due to being at a height of 20 kilometers. “On this type of machine, about 30 percent goes into the weight structure, and another 30 percent for the energy system, says” Vincanzo Rosario BernelloHead of Earth Observation System Unit at Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA“Improvement in those technologies gives a competitive advantage”.

The silver dirigals of the SCEYE are designed for endurance, capable of pointing into the air, and remaining in their operations for months at a time. Ultra-lightweight and flexible Solar skin And high density battery pack Keep overnight equipment on. While the temperature of the system- and UV-refined payload cans can withstand extreme stratospheric conditions. Airplane can reach height in less than 30 minutes, capable with the same craft Change up to 25 ground towers,

Construction on new spectrum

The time has come, Nikolai Vasiliv, the head of the Tiresterial Services Department, says International Telecom AssociationFor stratospheric systems such as prototype networks of STEYE and Softbank.

“We have installed the power limit, coordination rules and harmonious bands,” says Vasiliv. “Now this is to deploy operators.”

Till some time ago, high altitude platforms like Sceye and SoftBank aircraft Mainly rely on millimeter-wave spectrum47 and 48 including bandwidth among gigahrtz frequencies. Mills waves, however, are limited boundaries and are notorious Weak for rain and other bad weatherThis is why, in the part, World radiocummune conference Many microwave bands opened between 2023 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz For Haps.

These lower-frequency bands effectively open the way for a direct-to-device connection from stratospheric aircraft and other high-height platforms. Tosheru Sumiyoshi of Softbank’s omnipresent network planning division said, “The availability of a direct-to-device HAPS, the availability of low-band spectrum has fundamentally changed the business case.” “Now we can serve with commercially available handsets.”

Different First high altitude platform Acting Like a signal relayThe high -height towers of SCEYE will eventually allow users to cross coverage areas without losing service, thanks to the handover between land and air nodes. And it may look like and feel the final user like terrestrial 4G and 5G coverage everyday.

Softbank is still weighing how best is the best to deploy stratospheric platforms of STEYE, whether it is always as a infrastructure or emergencies and on-demand respondents during the emergency and other periods of an emergency and anticipated high-mang. “Our current plan aims to stay in the air for one year for an aircraft,” says Sumiyoshi. “But both landscapes, continuous flights or launch in response to an disaster, are perceptive. Operating details will be finalized after pre-commercial testing in 2026, taking into account the multi-use options such as cost-effectiveness and remote sensing.”

Bernilo says that whatever as deployment, it carries forward an important step. “The partnership between SCEYE and SoftBank is important,” they say. “It indicates that these platforms have reached a level of technical maturity that allows them to be operationally deployed. From an aerospace engineering point of view, it’s a big thing, and market interest will further increase research, industry and development.”