Sceye and SoftBank Corp. have signed a five-year Master Services Agreement covering the manufacture, launch and operation of Sceye high-altitude platform systems (HAPS) over Japan, with nationwide coverage as the goal. Most of the planned fleet is intended to provide mobile broadband, while some platforms are expected to support a free-space optical network in the stratosphere. The agreement moves the partnership beyond flight demonstrations, but gives no fleet size, deployment schedule or start date for commercial services.
The companies envisage combining terrestrial networks, stratospheric platforms and satellites to support applications including disaster communications, aerial connectivity, edge computing, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and 6G. The planned coverage has not yet been achieved.
The agreement follows a 30-day Service Test 1 mission launched from New Mexico on 9 August 2026. The platform travelled to Japan and back, with a week of operations over Japan during which the partners tested text messaging, voice calls, internet access and video streaming. Other trial activities included emergency communications, indoor connectivity, remote drone control and onboard edge computing.
Sceye also reported a ground-based demonstration of stratospheric laser ranging, a technique relevant to future free-space optical communications. SoftBank previously partnered with Sceye in the platform developer’s 2025 Series C funding round.