One of the obstacles about deploying the 5G network (and any other network in the past) is sitting antennas. Building thousands of new mobile antennas in urban areas is a challenging mission, mainly because of public concern about health issues.

During the sixth annual Brooklyn 5G Summit, that took place between 23-26 of April this year, Silicon Valley and telecom leaders discussed the possibility of commercial mobile phone and Internet service provided from air, via aerial drones and balloons. No high-altitude network connectivity services have taken off commercially so far, but some of the speakers at the Summit were optimistic that it would happen soon. This service will start, according to the speakers, from filling the gaps when coverage is lacking in rural, under-served communities and on a temporary basis such as a natural disaster.

Some major players are working on making this dream come true- we can see among them companies as Nokia, Loon – Alphabet’s internet balloon unit (by Google X research lab) and Softbank. The latter has just invested 125$ million in the Loon project, which already provides Internet connectivity from the air. The company’s stratospheric balloons have also won their first commercial contract with Telkom Kenya to provide mobile phone service in some parts of the country.