Japan is expected to see the emergence of "flying cell towers" as early as next year.

According to the Nikkei newspaper on the 9th, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has begun full-scale efforts to establish a regulatory framework for the practical use of flying cell towers employing unmanned aircraft.

The ministry plans to amend its enforcement ordinance to mandate that flying cell towers operate at an altitude of approximately 20 km, with the intention of implementing this in March of next year.

Given that Japanese mobile carriers like SoftBank and NTT Docomo have been pursuing the introduction of flying cell towers, Nikkei anticipates that full-scale services could be available as early as 2026.

Flying cell towers involve mounting cell tower equipment on unmanned aircraft that fly in the stratosphere (10-50 km altitude) to communicate with the ground.

While terrestrial cell towers cover a radius of about 10 km, flying cell towers can cover a radius of up to 200 km.

Although their range is narrower than that of satellites, they are capable of high-speed, high-capacity communication.

Furthermore, in the event of a disaster, they offer the advantage of flexible deployment, such as quickly moving pre-positioned unmanned aircraft to the affected area.

They can also assist in assessing the exact extent of damage by capturing images of roads and facilities in disaster areas using the cameras on the unmanned aircraft.

A stratospheric wireless communication airship from US company Sceye, to be introduced by SoftBank. Captured from Sceye's homepage.

Japan considers itself a leader in the field of flying cell tower technology.

SoftBank began technology development in 2017 and successfully achieved 5G communication between a flying cell tower and the ground for the first time in the world in 2023.

NTT Docomo conducted communication tests in Kenya in February. NTT Docomo views Africa, which lacks internet infrastructure, as a promising market for exporting flying cell tower technology.

Challenges also exist. While unmanned aircraft are stable in the stratosphere, deployment becomes difficult in the presence of strong winds, storms, and turbulence. Additionally, as unmanned aircraft are powered by solar energy, improving power generation efficiency is necessary in high-latitude regions where sunlight is less accessible.

In April, the Japanese government amended the Radio Law to permit the installation of mobile phone base stations in the stratosphere or below. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications plans to specify the altitude for base stations between 18 and 25 km in its enforcement ordinance.

This initiative is expected to enable mobile phone usage in areas where network maintenance is difficult, such as mountainous regions and remote islands, and to secure a stable communication network in situations where terrestrial base stations are paralyzed due to disasters.