JapanSceye will fly stratospheric cell towers over Japan for SoftBank.

Phone coverage would no longer depend on towers or rocket launches.

Sceye’s platforms hold position near 20 km, reach altitude in under 30 minutes on lifting gas, and serve ordinary phones directly.

Sceye’s longest flight is 30 days, and refurbishing a recovered platform takes months.

The 5-year agreement scales to at least 40 platforms, up from the single 30-day test flight in September.

How each outlet framed it
Payload
frames HAPS as a stratospheric bridge between towers and satellites, with a 40-unit fleet and SoftBank's Starlink direct-to-cell adoption

Sources: Payload