Security News > 2020 > October > Brit startup would like to beam 5G connectivity down at you from hydrogen-fuelled drones
A British startup is hoping to strap 5G antennas to liquid-hydrogen-powered high-altitude pseudo-satellites in the hope of replacing mobile base stations on the ground.
Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, chief exec of DT's mobile mast subsidiary, said in a canned statement: "We are thrilled to be working with Stratospheric Platforms to realise our vision of connectivity from the sky. SPL's unique technology will enable us to deliver to all our customers, wherever they are located, a true broadband experience. We welcome other investors to join us on this journey to cost-effectively address the challenges of broadband roll-out."
Where SPL differs radically from Google Loon is in its proposal to develop a hydrogen fuel cell with which to power both the payload and the HAPS aircraft itself.
The aircraft SPL proposed for lofting 5G base stations up to altitudes of about 65,000ft are said to have a wingspan of 60m - almost that of a Boeing 747 - with which it will carry a 3m x 3m antenna.
Aerospace magazine went on to describe the SPL concept of operations, consisting of "Virtual giant steerable data relay footprints" created through what sounds like a mesh network of hydrogen 5G HAPSes: "This patented concept, of using a synthetic inverse aperture array to do telecoms work or cooperative aerial inter-antenna beamforming provides 'massive amounts more data' than a single antenna on its own and allows the creation of individual cells for each user."