The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Good morning. Test, test. Okay. It is 9:00 a.m. in this room. But I think so many participants are still in this room. I would like to wait five more minutes to start this session. So please take a seat, and please just wait a minute. I will start this session about five past 9:00. Or 10 past 9:00. Thank you very much.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you, I confirm that the session is coming. I would like to wait one minute to start the session. Also the Zoom session for this meeting, but still eight people currently joining. So I'd like to wait more, as soon as five minutes. Thank you very much for your patience.
I would like to thank you for your patience, this is HAPS Internet Access for all from the Stratosphere. I am Shiro Fukumoto. This session is to HAPS added to the session and it is expected to be used as a solution to collect uncollected area from the stratosphere at altitude 20 kilometers taking advantage of the characteristics of being able to provide Internet connectivity to a wide area and applying continuous connection even natural disasters. Currently, the latest players, in network vendors. In the institutions and Academia conducting research development on the administration to realize HAPS commercialization in near future. In addition ITU is studying HAPS in Agenda 1 in the World Radiocommunication Conference. This session will expect about expectation, challenges and prospects for HAPS and HIBS. And here is the speakers for today. From the last side. Mortimer Hope
Associate Director and Africa Lead, Policy Impact Partners
Ltd.
And Dr. Yoshihisa Kishiyama, Senior Member, Space RAN Business, Space Compass Corporation.
And Dr. Hiroyuki Tsuji, Systems Laboratory, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT).
And Geraldo Neto, Vice President, Telecommunications Management Group Inc. Chair of Sub‑Working Group Agenda Item 1.4 of ITU‑R WP 5D.
Each panelist will give 10 minutes presentation. And we would like to take question from the participants if there is time. Here we get into the presentation I would like to add one point, in addition to HAPS, the timer will be used in this session. Showing here it is applications of HAPS. So you can understand it as a station high in the sky and HAPS on the other hand is more general term. So please be aware that when we say HAPS we may be referring to HIBS as well.
Okay. So now, I would like to start the presentation by panelists. First I would like to invite Mr. Mortimer Hope. So please get start your presentation.
>> Mortimer Hope: Thank you, Shiro. It is my pleasure and privilege to be here. I'm going to speak about HIBS and how it can help us on the African continent to bridge the Digital Divide.
Why is the Internet important? We have research from the ITU which has shown that providing mobile broadband has a positive effect on economic development, and there are figures that show that a 10% increase in mobile penetration can have up to 1.5% increase in GDP.
We know that during the COVID‑19 pandemic many of us were able to continue working remotely because of the connectivity that we had. Others were able to continue studying, they kept in contact with friends and family. There was entertainment, all of this was facilitated by the access to Internet, to broadband Internet.
Now, Internet usage in Africa is quite low. And just to give an idea of how bad the situation is, in 2022, only 40% of the African population used the Internet, which is well below the Global average of 66%. Africa also has a larger gender divide than the rest of the world.
This is in addition to the urban rural Digital Divide. Most African connect to the Internet using mobile broadband. And if you look at the bottom left, it just shows that only 1% of Africans have access to fixed broadband. This is quite below the Global average of 18%. And this has resulted in most Africans accessing the Internet using mobile broadband. And on the right we see that in 2021 in sub‑Saharan Africa, only 22% of the population in sub‑Saharan Africa in 2021 used the Internet.
What is interesting is that 61% of the population lived within the coverage area of a mobile broadband network but did not use the Internet and this is mostly due to affordability issues. Affordability around the access to devices, smartphones, and affordability of the services. The mobile broadband service.
HIBS can play a role in addressing the coverage gap. That is 17% of the sub‑Saharan African population were outside of the coverage area of a mobile broadband signal.
So this is where HIBS has a role to play. To help to address that coverage gap.
Now, research conducted by the GSMA, the association of the mobile operators worldwide identified a number of factors that inhibit the use of Internet. Some of the factors are knowledge and skills of the population affordability of devices and services. Safety and security or concerns about safety and security, relevance of the content, and access. Access in terms of access to networks and enablers such as the devices.
In Africa, if you look at the ‑‑ refer back to the previous slide, we saw that we have issues around the access. Where 17% of the population do not have access. And then affordability, where 61% of the sub‑Saharan African population cannot afford the service, hence they do not use it.
Now the coverage gap in Africa is not uniform throughout the continent. Some we have some areas where there is very good coverage. Mauritius is an island state. They have very high mobile broadband coverage. But there are other parts of the continent and I will use Mozambique as an example. It is a quite large country, physically large. The population is spread throughout the country, but there are some areas where there's low population density. It is quite rural. So the country as a whole has very low mobile Internet usage.
Namibia is in a similar position where it is a large country with a small population. Spread thinly across the country. So these are some of the countries where it would be HIBS would be a good solution or one of the solutions to help to address the Internet access challenge. Now, HIBS, I'm hoping that one of my fellow panelists will describe the technology for HIBS, but for this presentation, I just mention that HIBS it's the equivalent of a mobile based station, which is on a platform which could be an aircraft or balloon that is between 20 and 50 kilometers above the earth's surface. It covers a large area up to 100 kilometers in radius. If you compare this with a ground base station, which covers sometimes up to 10 kilometers in rural areas. So HIBS would allow us to cover large areas using a single HIBS.
So I have come to the end of the presentation. So in summary, HIBS is Internet usage is important for economic development, education, entertainment, access to Government services, and some parts of the world job searches and poverty reduction.
We have noted that fixed broadband plays a very minimal role in Africa. Where the majority of people connect to the Internet using mobile broadband services. In Africa, we find that affordability is a major issue resulting in many people being within the coverage area of a broadband signal, but not being able to afford that signal, so they're not using the Internet because of issues with affordability of the device and affordability of the service.
HIBS can help to address these issues, the access gap, which is the coverage issue. And even a bit of the affordability gap by providing services to those previously unconnected parts of the population.
Notice, in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals, HIBS can help to address some of these. We have goal 4 where HIBS will bring quality education to remote areas. We have number 7 and 13 so 0 carbon dioxide emissions during flight. Because HIBS uses the energy from the sun, solar energy. There are no carbon dioxide emissions. So HIBS will address affordable and clean energy and also climate action.
In terms of SDG number 9, it is HIBS is innovative technology. So it is infrastructure that would be in the stratosphere. And then finally, with SDG 10, reducing inequality. It would help to reduce the urban‑rural divide and also the gender inequality in use of Internet services.
Now, in terms of the ITU process, we have the World Radiocommunication Conference which is coming up in November and December in Dubai. And there we will be discussing ways to allow HIBS to use additional frequency bands, so all the frequency bands that are currently used for mobile broadband can be used by HIBS in different parts of the world.
So this is an opportunity for Governments to make this possible. Now, in terms of the frequency, the specific frequencies that are on the discussion, we have the frequencies that are quite popular for use in rural areas. So the 700, 800, 900 megahertz bands. And other frequencies that can be used for additional capacity. So I'd like to end there now. And thank you very much.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you Mortimer Hope for explaining the importance of Internet and current challenges of Internet connectivity in Africa. And using HIBS as an accelerator. And next, on behalf of Japanese research institute, I would like to ask Dr. Hiroyuki Tsuji to give his presentation. Please give your presentation.
>> Hiroyuki Tsuji: Thank you very much and for my introduce and welcome to Japan. My name is Hiroyuki Tsuji working for NICT. All I would like to explain briefly in the introduction about NICT. NICT is Japan sole national research and development Agency specializing in the field of the information and communications technology. The NICT is in charge of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. And so the slideshows our future image ‑‑ I'm sorry. This slide shows the future image of expanding in the network in the territory and the space and moon. And because it is not currently need technology is coming and also have developed. For example, is real consideration is just now on cell. And just providing Internet access all over the world. And it is aiming for not only expanding the network, but also nonterrestrial network. Some of the HAPS and HIBS.
And most important role of HAPS and HIBS is very useful. It is for base station to collect the NTL and TL network. Because it is over 20 kilometer altitude, the distance is from 20 kilometers is 100 kilometers. And in the propagation, it is almost round‑trip 0.3 milliseconds and 1 over 100 of the satellite. This is good for the merit of the HAPS and we can use a small antenna for the HAPS to connect to the adjacent network. So mobile phone can directly access to HIBS without any source of devices. Just like the terrestrial base stations. NICT is developing HAPS. This shows over 20 years ago we successfully conducted a demonstration using HAPS just fly over 20 kilometers with a solar panel and electricity. We conduct it jointly with NASA to drive over the 20 kilometers.
And we conducted two types of experiments, over 20 years, 2002, over Hawaii and the island. And we confirmed the use of HAPS in the experiment, one was to show the merit of the mobile phone and the IMT2000 is connecting directly to HAPS and also the broadband cast of the TV so the system only over 20 kilometers. So from the source. Anyway, the backside. Okay. This is coming soon. But we over 20 years ago it is discussed in the new spectrum for HAPS. And we think we believe that this experiment is introduce so the new spectrum for HAPS for example, to 47 gigahertz and five gigahertz and 28 gigahertz for the HAPS.
Anyway, over 20 years ago, we notice some of the HAPS and HIBS.
Okay. Currently, I summarize the current session of the HAPS development. And over the 20 years ago, the main brought home was considered an answer. And now several types of HAPS is considered. Sorry, developing an S type and Airbus type and this is a system of record of over three thousand hours. And also stratospheric is another type of HAPS. So you can bring this time for hydrology. And HAPS mobile in Japan is considering developing a plane type in 3.2 in the solar plane we are using in 2002. This is the current situation of the HAPS development.
And also Japan is some sort of institution is trying to develop the HAPS network system using HAPS. One is a project that is being conducted is space integrated computing network concept and using satellites and HAPS with the Space Compass. And after that, we introduce the detail of the digital assist project. And also some carriers of the mobile network and also in the conducting and HAPS system, a new network system using HAPS. But in the document, it is a concept of this and the network system using HAPS and also I just introduce it before. On the HAPS mobile is using solar panels. This is the current situation in Japan development.
Finally, we believe that the future network is in not only include but in dorms and airplane and HAPS and satellites. And the 3D network. Each collecting. This is an important point for this concept. HAPS is just a very point for collecting. I think that collecting in the terrestrial and the network because it is just allocated from just a 20 kilometers. And in between. And the attrition network and terrestrial. HAPS is also connect the mobile system and also HAPS is use to connect to satellite system. So ... we believe that HAPS and HIBS is very important rollover the concept of the building privacy network system.
And finally HAPS and currently considering the situation of the spectrum. Spectrum is very limited and also in the mobile phone system the network is require new sort of spectrum and also HAPS also require now spectrum.
The idea is the use of optical link instead of the radio and other systems. Because it is optical system can directly connect from so the HAPS to satellite sometimes we can connect and HAPS can collect to the network. As it is NASA is developing a small optical returner that can be mounted on the satellite.
Anyway, my presentation is over. Thank you very much.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you very much Hiroyuki Tsuji for explaining about nonterrestrial network in the situation in Japan. Actually, it includes satellite and U.S. as well. So I'm very interested in that HAPS in the component. I would like to ask you about that.
Now, I would like to invite Dr. Yoshihisa Kishiyama
Senior Member, Space RAN
Business, Space Compass
Corporation.
>> Yoshihisa Kishiyama: Thank you for the introduction. I will introduce Space RAN Business, Space Compass Corporation activity in Japan. First I will introduce S Space Compass Corporation. And Space RAN Business, Space Compass Corporation is joint venture company, it is established by NTT and JSAT. NTT is one of the largest communication company in Japan. And JSAT is largest satellite company in Asia.
And Space Compass was established in the last year. Our focus is space data center and span RAN, radio access network.
So space data center includes the optical data and computing as described in the slide. This slide show our company vision. In the developed communication between the NTN, for example, the satellite, gather information from sensing. And we have the data center with the geo satellite. And computing is processing. And the space RAN is using nodes such as geo Leo and HAPS. Among the nodes, the Space Compass will focus on HAPS in the initial phase of the deployment.
This shows the characteristic of the HAPS and first focus on the HAPS for implementation. The first is direct action to ‑‑ direct access to smartphone compared with satellite and geo satellite. HAPS system can provide the existing smartphone directory. With some data rate for the Internet service. And second is a coverage expansion compared with terrestrial network, HAPS has an area that not covered by the terrestrial network, such as sea and sky and some mountain areas. The third is disaster resilient operation.
HAPS can provide a service from the sky. Sky is safe compared to the ground for earthquake and so on.
Also the station for HAPS but the HAPS is safe from ground disasters. And fourth reason is remote sensing. And satellite also can provide the remote sensing, but HAPS stay in the fixed point from the ground. And the issues is short. And HAPS can provide more remote sensing compared with the high resolution.
And fifth reason is flexible service. HAPS service area is limited with Leo satellite. For example, the radius of 5, 50 kilometers. On the other hand, HAPS can start the service from single aircraft, compared with level satellite. Satellite is many, many satellites to make a constellation. So similar start to implement is possible.
The last reason is sustainable society. And basically HAPS is 100% solar power. So good for environment.
And we can have many use case of HAPS as described in the slide. HAPS can provide coverage extensions such as sea and sky. So you can provide new use case as in the sky. And ship on the sea. And we can extend the coverage of mobile networks such as mountain area, the network is difficult.
And HAPS is also used for backup service, using millimeter wave. And that can be a ballpark for fixed line for MNO network. And that can provide high capacity back up service to, for example, airplanes.
As I explained in the HAPS is useful not only for communication, but also for remote sensing.
And the stage of commercialization, it would be difficult to provide all type of use case. So we will focus on some limited and important use case to make our activity for business. And our target is fiscal year of 2025. HAPS deployment in Japan. And we will focus on direct access to the smartphone device. With mobile network. And also remote sensing cause faster target use case.
Space Compass is cooperate, is collaborating with Airbus Zephyr to provide a solar electric HAPS station. And we have some list for jointly study commercialization of HAPS.
This is some sensing picture from HAPS. And we can get this kind of high resolution image over the sky.
And for the communication system, we have this kind of network in the state. Collaborating the 5G network. And basically we use the core network in the base station that is used in the current terrestrial network. And for example, mobile Internet will provide this kind on the 5G network. And Airbus for example, HAPS is such as Airbus, provides HAPS aircraft and gateway station. The space capacity conduct some coordination for mobile competitor and HAPS vendors. In the system, we will use cyber link, that is a link between HAPS and mobile phones. We will use current frequency bands. And there is link between HAPS and gateway station. In this link, we will use high frequency such as the wave. And this is frequency situation.
And currently in the ‑‑ in the bands. Available. Therefore deployment may be this band is main currently. But we can expand the settings in 2023. Considering the expansion frequency bands.
And in the feeder link, some candidate bands identified in the WRC 19. Candidates in the activity 38. The gigahertz band is a major candidate because of the wider frequency band that is compared as a candidate.
This is my final slide. This is Space Compass Roadmap and what I get is basically 2025 for commercialization of HAPS. But before the commercialization, we have some POC activities. This year and next year.
We will increase HAPS and area covered by HAPS. And we will increase capability of the communication system using HAPS.
Yes.
That's all. Thank you.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you very much Yoshihisa Kishiyama. And I understand there is many ways to achieve commercialization. Please let us discuss it greater. The last but not least, Mr. Geraldo Neto make his presentation. Welcome to Japan, thank you for your patience. It is your turn.
>> Geraldo Neto: Thank you Shiro. And good morning to all and good day to those that are joining us online today.
Yeah. It is interesting to be at the least in this panel, but my idea is to go through some of the regulatory steps to take to make this technology available and deployed in different countries.
As indicated by Shiro and the team, among several of the companies here have been part of the HAPS Alliance supporting the development of these frameworks, international and national level. And I think if you heard from my fellow panelists, the importance of expanding connectivity, especially in emerging countries and the situation in Africa like Mortimer Hope indicated. We see technology development that is going on for several years. I'm happy to see as well a timeline for deployment. We see this technology is getting mature. And will be available soon.
From my point of view, we work this ITU process for the past four years, and we're on a very important year this year. But why are we doing this? Why does this connect it to other discussions we're going to have in the five days of the IGF? Because I understand the IGF is focused on other aspects of the Internet and content and how to manage the Internet. The connectivity is an important part of that.
And still, we have a great number of countries and areas covered by terrestrial networks. And now more and more new technology of satellite networks. But still have a great amount of people that does not have connectivity. And we talk about meaningful connectivity, which is addressing not only the coverage issue but the cost of the populations to access it.
That is when, in our view, the HIBS gets into the multilayered network where it is not feasible for a terrestrial network to be installed because it might be too expensive. May not be feasible or economically viable to have a cat light coverage. In this case, you have this middle layer that we can have an access that is much similar and we have seen a lot of the presentations here as a terrestrial network whether we are talking 5G or in the future 6G network. The important aspect here in terms of cost is the device from user perspective is the same device. They will use the same cell phone or same fixed access to reach this network. We have the expanded coverage.
But we have seen some of the examples here, not only that, in the past, one of the companies provided this type of service were able to provide connectivity in the situation of disaster in the U.S. where all the terrestrial network was off after hurricane, and in a few hours, launching one of the platforms, it was possible to establish those connectivities.
So there are different aspects of importance of having this type of stratospheric stations that are very important as we're talking about the future of expanding Internet connectivity.
So not going over so many of the details that have been explained before. My main point here is really what is being done and on a regulatory standpoint and while we're looking ahead.
It has been mentioned here several times about the ITU process. That is one of the U.N. agencies, and there every four year we have the World Radiocommunication Conference that will take place, the next one, one month from now. Basically defining the spectrum access for the different services and defining how the services can operate for the following years.
That is a very important step when we're talking about HIBS, because of course, we see that the platforms they have a wide area of coverage, about 200 kilometers in coverage. Before it can be implemented it is important to have the international framework established to avoid interference problems among the Nations.
So we're very hopeful as we get to the conference in Dubai next month, because this work we have been doing together for the past years has led to all the Regions in the world to agree that HIBS is necessary. All the Regions from Asia, America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, they all agree that these new frequencies for HIBS are important. By the end of that in December, we will have that international framework established.
It has been mentioned before about the previous frequencies that were the feeder links or fixed links that that allowed the core network to be connected to the station.
Now we're talking about the frequencies that would basically connect to the user directly. With that, the start of next year, it will be with the work worldwide to implement at international level. It is interesting to see, because for us, basically the HIBS is very high power, very high base station for mobile connectivity. So from a regulatory standpoint, most countries, the change is needed to implement might be minimum. Because the international framework already cover the issue of cross border interference. We see the take up on the national level to be easy on that front.
And also a potential for public‑private partnerships because we talk about areas that might not be commercially viable otherwise. It is important to look at how Governments can participate in this process.
Here we're not replacing the existing approach. This is another layer of infrastructure, so the existing operators can expand that.
And in parallel to all of that, we have the discussions on standards, which is very important when I talk about the scale for these types of services. And a lot of the companies here have been participating in the organizations to make sure that the HIBS connectivity is integrated to the regular mobile standards like 3G PP.
When we talk about 5G and 6G, the HIBS connectivity is integrated in the standards.
Basically to give this, connect all the dots here of what we're saying. I think the most important, as we have seen, the technology has advanced. Not only from the telecommunication side, but mainly from the aviation side among the HAPS Alliance accompanied many stratospheric platforms, all forms and types. We have seen how much HIBS can support as one extra layer of connectivity. We're not replacing but adding to the terrestrial network and adding to the satellite capacity. We're here at this cornerstone in terms of international framework of the ITU WRC coming up in Dubai one month there now.
We're very happy to see all of the developments and possible commercial deployments and by the end of this seminar, if there is any questions, please let us know. Thank you so much.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you Geraldo Neto for your explanation of the legal point of view. So I was asked for the finish this session. And now to end. I would like to ask one question for Geraldo Neto and Mortimer Hope about support for Government. Actually in Japan, discussions just about to be the domestic use of HAPS, which is aimed for 2025. However what about other countries? This is my country for Mortimer Hope and Geraldo Neto, how can Government support the development and use of HIBS?
Mortimer Hope, please.
>> Mortimer Hope: Okay. Thank you.
Thank you for that question. So Governments can support in a number of ways. Firstly, by putting the regulatory framework in place. That starts with the World Radiocommunication Conference next month. And then within each country, there would need to issue the authorizations for HIBS to operate. So it wouldn't just be telecommunications authorizations, you would need authorization from the civil Aviation and probably law enforcement agencies. The other thing that can be addressed is supply side measures by using the universal service fund to help in building and deploying the networks and also address the demand side by subsidizing uses to obtain devices. We know devices are an issue. They're expensive in Africa.
So subsidies for devices and subsidies for usage of the Internet service. Thank you very much.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you. How about Geraldo Neto?
>> Geraldo Neto: Thank you Shiro for this question. I think what Mortimer Hope indicate side correct. The first step is really allowing the sessions to operate. Of course, following up on the discussions of the WRC making the spectrum available for these type of police stations. There is an important role of the Government and we have seen throughout the years because a lot of the countries that are participating in the ITU discussions they want to have a trial. They want to have a deployment of such session in their country. And the way to do it is really not only facilitate on the regulatory side but being one of the key stakeholders in connecting the companies.
The HIBS is just one infrastructure that needs a partnership with the mobile approach and needs a partnership with local connectivity companies that are sometimes related to the Government. So the Government can connect those entities as Mortimer Hope indicated, using USF funds, because a lot of the places that the HIBS would be useful, they're not necessarily commercially viable for normal mobile operator. So there needs to be public‑private partnerships in terms of expanding connectivity in those areas. It is really understanding the public policies of the country and understanding what the technology can do and try to allow them to operate in the country. Thank you.
>> SHIRO FUKUMOTO: Thank you very much. I have so many questions on this matter. But I have to finish this session. Finally I would like to discuss one thing in this country, that provide about HAPS in the area. So if you are interested in HAPS, please stop by Soft Bank stand.
And with that, I would like to conclude this session. So thank you very much t. Please come out in the end. Thank you.