Japanese telco SoftBank Corp has outlined plans launch pre-commercial High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) stratospheric telecommunications services in Japan next year.

To support this, the company has made an equity investment in Sceye, Inc.

US-based Sceye, founded by its CEO Mikkel Vestergaard, specializes in developing lighter-than-air (LTA)-type HAPS vehicles - akin to blimps or zeppelins.

The company's HAPS platform uses the buoyant force of helium, a gas lighter than air, to remain airborne for long durations.

In 2023, the company completed three test flights in the space of three months.

SoftBank didn't reveal the exact investment it has made in Sceye, but noted that it signed an agreement with the firm last week, which grants it exclusive rights to provide HAPS-based services in Japan using Sceye's platform.

As part of the program, SoftBank noted it is also developing heavier-than-air (HTA)-type HAPS vehicles while also utilizing LTA-type vehicles to accelerate the commercialization of HAPS-based telecommunication services.

SoftBank said its HAPS-based commercial services will support stable and reliable connectivity for drones and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the 6G era, while also providing telecommunications services during large-scale disasters when terrestrial networks are disrupted.

HAPS are commonly referred to "base stations in the sky." They operate in the stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 20 km to provide wide-area communications coverage.

HAPS – whether airships, balloons, or fixed-wing drones – offer a way to provide connectivity to rural and unconnected areas without the upfront costs of cell towers or satellites or the need for specialist receivers.

SoftBank's HAPS push

SoftBank has been developing HAPS-based services since 2017.

The company said its investment into Sceye will support its plans to provide pre-commercial HAPS services in Japan in 2026 using Sceye's LTA-type HAPS platform.

It notes that these services will help the company to support communication recovery during disruptions due to large-scale disasters, such as major earthquakes, and deliver connectivity to hard-to-reach areas, including mountainous regions and remote islands.

According to SoftBank, HAPS-based services will enable faster speeds, greater capacity, lower latency, and more flexible deployment capabilities compared to satellite-based communications.

"In addition to our research and development for HTA-type HAPS, I'm extremely pleased we'll be launching LTA-type HAPS pre-commercial services in 2026 through our new partnership with Sceye," said Junichi Miyakawa, president & CEO of SoftBank Corp.

"The stratospheric-based, wide area telecommunications of HAPS will play a key role in expanding network area coverage to areas that are difficult to reach with existing mobile network infrastructure, and it will also provide a means of restoring communications when large-scale disasters strike. Furthermore, as we move toward the 6G era, HAPS will be key infrastructure to support society when 3D telecommunications networks will be needed to support sky-based mobility."

SoftBank has made a large number of investments in the space in recent years. The company was an investor in Loon – and acquired some of the unit’s patents in the wake of its closure – but also set up HAPSMobile in 2017 in conjunction with US military drone firm AeroVironment. The HAPS company has made five successful test flights of its 78m wingspan drone and previously said it aimed to begin commercial operations – mostly in the form of wholesale services to operators – around 2023.

SoftBank has also invested across a number of other sky-based companies; as well as HAPS, it has investments in both low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite firms and even aerostats (tethered blimps).

In 2023, the company carried out a 5G communications trial from a HAPS above Rwanda, a couple of months after SoftBank conducted test flights for a sub-scale model of its latest-generation HAPS platform.

That same year, the company completed an absorption-type merger of its wholly owned subsidiary, HAPSMobile Inc.