CNET
A New Way to Get Internet Takes to the Skies
Sceye’s High-Altitude Platform System just concluded its endurance testing program, bringing this new way to connect one step closer to widespread adoption. 0:00 Introduction to HAPS Technology 0:23 Record-Breaking Endurance Test Flight 1:45 How Solar-Powered Stratospheric Flight Works 1:52 HAPS vs. Satellite Internet: The Direct-to-Device 5G Advantage 2:23 Commercialization and Global Partnerships 2:54 Addressing the…
@WillyWoolyButt
April 12, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Ah my ex-London-student time employer, CBS-Technologies-Innovation CNET
@westonsaunders6460
April 12, 2026 at 12:30 pm
A new way? Nope. Google’s Project Loon was doing this 15 years ago. It was determined to be unsustainable and shut down in 2021.
@jpmkiv
April 12, 2026 at 12:30 pm
We need a ton of these in storage as a backup insurance for a Kessler Syndrome event.
@firohot5476
April 12, 2026 at 12:31 pm
Read Google had such a plan of using blimps to broadcast Internet in remote areas year’s ago
But didn’t materialise then
@sarabeth8050
April 12, 2026 at 12:47 pm
Buh bye SpaceX!
@icaru34
April 12, 2026 at 12:51 pm
How does internet get to it? Is it like a repeater for a cell tower?
@Gharial555
April 12, 2026 at 1:00 pm
My intrusive GTA 5 thoughts 😭💥
@b1r2y3n
April 12, 2026 at 1:16 pm
Oh good, highly vulnerable infrastructure seems smart. We need robust options, not something that can be brought down with a slingshot.
@mudaninarib1057
April 12, 2026 at 1:17 pm
Bye,bye Starlink 🤣
@thricegreat
April 12, 2026 at 1:38 pm
Let’s use all the helium we have! 😀
@GHOSTDRONEXXXIII
April 12, 2026 at 1:57 pm
Wasn’t it claimed helium supply was low and running out?
@jaredwhite489
April 12, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Starlink has left the chat
@ValuedTeamMember
April 12, 2026 at 2:12 pm
*_WOW. When it was pulled out I hadn’t seen anything go up that fast since my prom date shimmied off her dress._* Just saying. *VERY COoL!* (the airship, not my date)
@gemartsiha
April 12, 2026 at 2:26 pm
Its to fry us with extreme radiation.
@Alqptuzmw
April 12, 2026 at 2:26 pm
Starlink can do direct to cell today. Starlink v3 will increase 5G bandwidth by a lot. Does anyone at CNET know how to use the internet or AI to do any basic research?
@sab611
April 12, 2026 at 3:08 pm
Yeah, what about the Helium shortage?
@118Columbus
April 12, 2026 at 3:38 pm
Facebook was gonna do this with giant balloons – it doesn’t work — the cost does not justify the benefits.
@ColdPatterns
April 12, 2026 at 3:45 pm
“When there was no room left to litter on earth, we littered the skies”
@Think_like_Buffett
April 12, 2026 at 3:48 pm
This to me is a direct blow to space x plans for providing internet in undeveloped areas. If this can be mass produced and easily deployed
@Robert-uh9vf
April 12, 2026 at 4:13 pm
Stuff like this combined with electromagnetic propulsion could probably make space travel a lot safer. Instead of “bumping” into earths atmosphere at mach 33 or wasting chemical rocket fuel to punch up through atmosphere, a spacecraft of sufficient design should be able to quantum lock itself to nearby EM fields of certain size to propel or gradually “brake” in vacuum- which would make G-forces the main concern of survival instead of ablative materials falling off, causing re entry friction plasma to completely disintegrate the craft. Something like those mass accelerators they want to put on the moon, or a rail gun… But without the cannon. And maybe a lot lighter.
But also, there has been some research talking about the nullification of G-forces in a denser liquid environment which compresses differently than atmosphere. There was a guy who died from pneumonia after participating in an oxygenated liquid breathing experiment… Travelling through space should be as butter smooth as gently pushing off the wall, gliding across the room and stopping yourself by grabbing a handrail at the end of a corridor.
@Vlican
April 12, 2026 at 4:20 pm
already helium shortage
@DavidDatura
April 12, 2026 at 5:07 pm
With a Kessler event highly likely to occur at any moment, thus blocking access to space for all purposes, this tech might become increasingly important for global communications of all types. But the increasing lack of the availability of helium nowadays might ultimately put the kibosh on that too…we’re doomed 😬 everything is really going to the toilet isn’t it? The death throes of civilization.
@bobnomura2068
April 12, 2026 at 5:54 pm
The stratosphere is 6+ miles high, add in lateral distances… So can a phone transmit 5G signals 10 miles or so away ?
@G.D.Acosta
April 12, 2026 at 6:00 pm
Isn’t helium reserves critically low? Doesn’t sound that sustainable
@AmerBoyo
April 12, 2026 at 6:43 pm
What a stunning craft!