Japanese firm SoftBank has successfully tested 5G connectivity using High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Rwandan airspace.

Conducted in cooperation with the government of Rwanda, the trial of SoftBank’s stratosphere-ready communications payload provided an uninterrupted 5G connection for 73 minutes at a maximum altitude of 16.9km. 

A 5G-based Zoom video call was made between the test site in Rwanda and SoftBank team members in Japan.