BT has announced plans to trial new antenna technology to bring 4G and 5G coverage to the ‘hardest-to-reach’ areas of the UK.

In partnership with Stratospheric Platforms (SPL), which has developed antennas designed to be mounted on a High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) aircraft, BT said it will conduct the trials at its Adatral Park headquarters in Ipswich.

The HAPS antenna could also provide a fallback for terrestrial networks in the event of a disaster, supporting humanitarian aid or disaster relief, BT said.

It added that HAPS also has potential applications for remote monitoring across various industrial and agricultural use cases.

SPL claims its antenna technology can provide uninterrupted 4G and 5G connectivity direct to consumer smart phones, with the ‘phased array antenna’ capable of delivering faster speeds, in some cases up to 150Mbps across areas as wide as 140km or 15,000 square kilometres.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with SPL to start realising the huge potential of HAPS aircraft to further strengthen our UK 4G and 5G network technology leadership,” said Tim Whitley, managing director research and network strategy, BT Group.

Richard Deakin, chief executive of SPL commented: “This partnership will build further on SPL’s world-first 5G demonstration from the stratosphere achieved in 2022.”

The news follows trials by the UK government, with claims that broadband could be ‘beamed from space’.

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