UK-based Stratospheric Platforms Limited (SPL) has received investment from PT Profesional Telekomunikasi, a telecommunication infrastructure company in Indonesia. SPL seeks to provide high bandwidth telecoms network coverage from the stratosphere using hydrogen-powered High Altitude Platforms (HAPS) delivered by unmanned aircraft. This strategic partnership and investment will enable SPL to explore with Protelindo development of an […]

Aerospace giant Airbus has relaunched its high-altitude Platform Station business (HAPS) with a new name, Aalto, and is targeting high-altitude surveillance, 5G and direct-to-device connectivity. The company is expected to seek outside investment for the programme which will then be spun-off as a separate business. Zephyr/Aalto, using very high-flying solar-electric drones, will initially be 100 […]

Airbus and Salam, a Saudi Arabian telecoms company which is part of Abu Dhabi’s Mawarid Media & Communications, have signed a strategic partnership to provide the Airbus ‘Zephyr’ High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) to Saudi Arabia. The Airbus Zephyr comprises an unmanned drone or aerial vehicle,which flies at 21,000m (70,000ft) and can stay aloft for […]

Dr Ogbonnaya Anicho, a scientist at Liverpool Hope University, in the northwest of England, has called for High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) to form part of all future pandemic strategic planning. According to UNESCO, around 45 per cent of the world’s population still has no access to the Internet. In recent weeks, the World Economic […]