BT Group noted that the new antenna technology aims to deliver 4G and 5G from the air
U.K. operator BT and Stratospheric Platforms (SPL) announced they will test delivering mobile coverage using a new antenna technology, designed to be mounted on a High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) aircraft.
The new antenna technology would deliver 4G and 5G from the air. SPL is backed by German telco Deutsche Telekom.
The trials, being conducted at BT’s global R&D headquarters at Adastral Park, seek to explore HAPS as a new way to deliver mobile coverage to the hardest-to-reach areas of the U.K.
The project, which has received funding from Innovate UK, could offer “transformational opportunities” for sectors operating in remote areas such as transport, maritime security and search and rescue, according to the partners, and it could also provide seamless connectivity to consumers’ mobile devices in remote areas.
In addition to extending the reach of existing U.K. network infrastructure, the HAPS solution could provide a fallback for terrestrial networks in the event of a disaster, supporting humanitarian aid or disaster relief, according to BT and SPL. Furthermore, the two said, the technology has potential applications for remote monitoring across various industrial and agricultural use cases.
The U.K. telecommunications group also noted that SPL’s antenna technology can provide uninterrupted 4G and 5G connectivity directly to consumer smart phones. According to a release, the antenna is capable of delivering speeds up to 150 Mbps across areas as wide as 15,000 square km, through 500 individually steerable beams.
The first step in the trial project is the development of a secure 5G HAPS communications demonstration system. In the demo, SPL’s phased array antenna will be placed on a high building (simulating a high-altitude platform), to test its interaction with BT’s 5G architecture and connect with its Open RAN testbed. The test will include supporting multiple user groups and different potential use cases, concurrently on the same network, BT said.
Tim Whitley, managing director research and network strategy, BT Group said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with SPL to start realizing the huge potential of HAPS aircraft to further strengthen our UK 4G and 5G network technology leadership. This highly innovative and transformative project has the potential to further enhance our UK 4G and 5G footprint, which is already the largest and most reliable in the UK, to connect unserved rural areas and enable exciting new use cases for private users.”
“This partnership will build further on SPL’s world-first 5G demonstration from the stratosphere achieved in 2022. With BT, we’re pleased to continue our journey supporting the UK to become a science super-power,” said Richard Deakin, CEO of SPL.
