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Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, is set to establish its first communication hub for its high-altitude drones in Kenya's Laikipia county, according to a Bloomberg report.
The hub, which will be operated by Airbus's subsidiary Aalto Haps Ltd, will use Zephyr drones to provide high-speed Internet services to remote areas in Africa. The drones, which fly at about 20km above the earth, are the lowest earth-orbit satellite network in the world.
Airbus plans to roll out operations in Kenya at the beginning of next year and begin serving customers in the third quarter. The company will partner with local telecom operators such as Safaricom Plc and Telkom Kenya Ltd to facilitate Internet access.
Tom Guilfoy, the vice president of Aalto Port operations, said Kenya was chosen for the hub because of its favourable weather, wide open spaces, uncongested airspace, stable government, economic environment and well-educated, young, tech-savvy population.
The hub is expected to create close to 1,000 job opportunities and encourage local Internet adoption. The Zephyr drones, which can spend up to 200 days in flight and cover 7,500 sq km, could revolutionise Internet speeds and accessibility in Africa.
The drones will operate on a direct-to-device model, offering 5G non-terrestrial Internet connectivity with a latency of less than 10 milliseconds. The developers claim that the drones could replace mobile phone towers in some areas.
Airbus is awaiting approvals from Kenya's aviation, meteorological and communications authorities before launching the hub. The company aims to be an Internet provider for 3 per cent of the country, especially those in rural areas.
Airbus is among the global Internet tech companies that are eyeing the stratosphere to provide fast and reliable Internet services to underserved regions. The World Bank data shows that more than 50 per cent of people in Africa had no broadband Internet access in 2022.
Other players in the field include Amazon, which announced its Project Kuiper to launch low-earth orbit satellites for broadband, SpaceX, which is expanding its Starlink satellite Internet offering in Africa, and AST SpaceMobile, which is working with Safaricom to offer space-based Internet connections on regular mobile devices.
In October, Rwanda's government collaborated with Japan's SoftBank Corp for a test transmission of a video stream to Japan over HAPS 5G using a solar-powered UAV in the stratosphere. The test was successful and demonstrated the potential of HAPS technology for Africa.
