Stratosphere-First Telecoms #1 - Why HAPS, Why Now: From Towers to the Stratosphere

Executive Brief

• Third access layer. HAPS adds a stratospheric layer to the traditional tower-and-satellite mix—close enough for low latency and strong handheld links; high enough to cover thousands of km² with a single platform.

• Disaster first. Unlike ground sites, HAPS isn’t flooded, burned, or grid-dependent. It can be pre-positioned, launched quickly, and stabilise communications for public safety, health, utilities and banking when terrestrial networks are down.

• KSA fit. Use HAPS for desert corridors, coastal logistics, giga-projects—and as a national continuity asset for floods, sand/dust storms, cable-landing failures, substation outages, or cyber incidents.

From Two Layers to Three: Towers → Stratosphere → Space

Traditional design: density (towers) + reach (satellites). The gap is persistent, steerable coverage that can be stood up fast when geography or disaster defeats towers. HAPS fills that gap:

• Coverage without runaway capex. Replace dozens of remote sites with one footprint to connect villages, highways, and work camps.

• Pop-up capacity. Fly extra capacity for Hajj/Umrah or major events—then reposition.

• Always-on resilience. When fibre cuts or flooding isolate regions, a HAPS platform can re-establish service over a very large area while ground repairs proceed.

The Disaster-Coverage Role: How HAPS Keeps the Network Alive

1) Golden-Hour Comms for First Responders

• Rapid air-up. Pre-positioned platforms launch from safe airfields and provide an umbrella of LTE/5G coverage across cities or corridors.

• Mission-critical services. Prioritised slices for MCX (Mission-Critical PTT/video/data), push-to-talk groups, and body-cam uplinks.

• Interoperability. Gateways to legacy LMR/TETRA let police, civil defence, and medical teams talk seamlessly.

2) Public Alerts & Citizen Connectivity

• Cell Broadcast / Public Warning. Stratospheric cells deliver emergency alerts, evacuation routes, and shelter locations to ordinary handsets.

• SOS & messaging. When voice traffic is constrained, throttle to resilient messaging and SOS services to keep the public connected.

3) Critical Infrastructure Continuity

• Hospitals & EOCs. Dedicated QoS for emergency rooms, blood banks, and emergency operations centres.

• Finance & retail. POS/ATM failover and secure backhaul to keep payments operating.

• Utilities. SCADA/telemetry for power, water, and pipelines to accelerate restoration.

4) Cable-Landing & Backhaul Outages

• Alternative middle-mile. HAPS backhauls to inland gateways or satellites, bypassing damaged coastal facilities or flooded fibre routes.

5) Cyber or GNSS Disruption

• Policy-driven isolation. Spin up clean network slices with hardened routes and sovereign key custody.

• Resilient timing. Use satellite or terrestrial timing backups to maintain mobile core stability.

Where HAPS Slots in Your Everyday Network

1. Coverage Expansion (Rural & Remote)Replace the “last 20 towers” with one stratospheric footprint for deserts, islands, and construction corridors.

2. Event & Seasonal SurgeFly additional capacity for pilgrimage seasons, waterfront festivals, or stadiums; redeploy after peaks.

3. Maritime & Coastal CorridorsServe Red Sea lanes and ports while aggregating AIS/IoT; ideal for tourism marinas and logistics.

4. Enterprise ResilienceTreat HAPS as a policy-controlled insurance layer: if terrestrial fails, priority slices keep operations online.

Architecture: A Stratospheric gNB with Disaster DNA

• Radio payload. 4G/5G gNB with high-gain multi-beam antennas; policy steering attaches devices to the stratosphere only when needed.

• Core integration. Present HAPS cells as another RAT in your 5G core; enable pre-emption and mission-critical slices for public safety.

• Backhaul options. Microwave to hilltops, Ka-band to teleports, or LEO relay for path diversity.

• Security. Zero-trust ground segment, sovereign key custody, signed SBOM updates, lawful intercept aligned to KSA requirements.

• Edge apps. Airborne MEC hosts incident dashboards, GIS layers, and video analytics close to the radio.

Operational Playbook for Disasters (KSA)

1. Pre-event staging

   • Approvals, airspace corridors, and NOTAM templates agreed with regulators.

   • Pre-loaded public safety slices (police, civil defence, health) and broadcast templates in Arabic/English.

   • Fuel/power and spares caches at two regional launch sites.

2. Activation (H+0 to H+6)

   • Launch/position over target AOI; auto-provision cells and route to clean gateways.

   • EOC triggers cell broadcast; MCX talkgroups light up; LMR gateways come online.

3. Stabilisation (H+6 to H+72)

   • Add capacity beams for hospitals/ports; prioritise field-repair crews’ connectivity.

   • Enable video/imagery uplinks for situational awareness; throttle public traffic to preserve MCX.

4. Handover & Recovery (Day 3+)

   • Gradual offload back to repaired terrestrial sites; maintain HAPS as coverage guardrail.

   • Post-incident audit: attach times, coverage heatmaps, service-credit avoidance, and lessons learned.

TCO & KPI Snapshot (Board-Level)

• Time-to-air (HAPS launch → first attach)

• Coverage radius and population under service

• Attach time, handover success, PTT latency under load

• Uptime/MTTR during the incident; incidents bridged per year

• Service credits avoided; SLA compliance for priority customers

• Capex avoided/deferred vs. remote towers; $ per km² served

Risks & Mitigations

Risk	Mitigation
Airspace/weather during crises	Pre-cleared air corridors; dual-platform rotation; seasonal planning; high-wind abort rules
Spectrum & interference	Early CST engagement; interference studies; ITU filings for backhaul; dynamic power control
Security & export controls	In-kingdom gateways; key custody; supply-chain attestations; continuous monitoring; red-team drills
Vendor lock-in	Open core/RAN interfaces; multi-orbit backhaul; exit ramps in contracts
Operational novelty	Tabletop + live exercises; joint NOC/SOC runbooks; insurer participation from day one

6–12 Month KSA Pilot Plan (Disaster-Centric)

Q1–Q2

• Select two AOIs: Red Sea coastal strip (cable-landing risk) and an inland flood-prone wadi/city fringe.

• Secure flight and spectrum approvals; pre-configure public safety slices and broadcast templates.

• Integrate LMR/TETRA gateway; dry-run EOC workflows.

Q3–Q4

• 60–90 day operational window:

  1. Disaster simulation (fibre cut + power loss): measure time-to-air and first-responder KPIs.

  2. Public alert drill with cell broadcast and bilingual messaging.

  3. Utility continuity: SCADA/IoT backhaul with NB-IoT/RedCap.

• Executive dashboard: attach time, PTT latency, service continuity, and service-credit avoidance.

Conclusion: Resilience You Can Fly

HAPS shifts resilience from “hope the towers hold” to “launch the network.” With stratospheric coverage, prioritised public-safety slices, and flexible backhaul, Sceye turns disaster communications into a planned capability, not a scramble. For KSA operators and authorities, the stratosphere is now a practical lever for coverage, capacity, and continuity—especially when the ground lets you down.