Why the Stratosphere, Why Now? A Deep-Dive with Gregory Gottlieb

World Mobile Stratospheric is here: a certified aircraft platform, powered by hydrogen, capable of delivering mobile connectivity across 15,000 square kilometers straight to your phone, with nothing but the sky between you and your network.

Ground towers can’t always reach the people who need them, and satellites can't always deliver low-latency, cost-effective service.

To understand why this milestone matters, we sat down with Gregory Gottlieb, Head of Aerial Platforms at World Mobile, for a wide-ranging conversation on physics, strategy, and promise of our newest altitude layer.

From Aerostat to Aircraft

Until the end of 2023, Gregory Gottlieb and the aerial platforms team were focused on aerostats: balloon-based systems capable of lifting telecom payloads hundreds of metres into the air. The goal was to prove that low-cost, high-coverage aerial infrastructure could deliver service to rural and hard-to-reach regions where building towers isn’t viable.

The trials worked. In Mozambique, one aerostat matched the coverage of 12 conventional base stations, deployed in a fraction of the time and at one-eighth the cost. They ran in live commercial service, extending coverage to 93% of people in the target area, enabling mobile money services like M-Pesa, and proving that aerial coverage could drive real adoption.

Aerostats were fast to set up, economically compelling, and popular with local communities. But they weren’t without limits. Weather patterns, helium logistics, and operational constraints meant they required constant management. They excelled in targeted, lower-capacity deployments, but to scale the model globally, with higher throughput and less operational friction, the team needed to climb higher.

“We’d been members of the HAPS Alliance for years,” Gregory says. “Even while deploying aerostats, we were exploring the stratosphere. We knew that was where we could create the biggest impact, once the tech and economics aligned.”  

That alignment has now arrived.

With the launch of World Mobile Stratospheric, a new class of high-altitude aircraft now extends the World Mobile network to a part of the atmosphere where very few have operated, and none, until now, have delivered direct-to-handset 5G connectivity from 20,000 meters.

Why the Stratosphere?

To put it shortly: it’s not just about being higher. It’s about being stable.

“There’s a narrow band in the stratosphere, between 60,000 and 70,000 feet, where wind conditions are benign,” Gregory explained. “You’re above weather systems. Below jet stream turbulence. And you’re able to serve a very large footprint on the ground.”

That footprint covers up to 15,000 square kilometers per aircraft, the equivalent of roughly 450 ground towers. This number is not arbitrary.

“That number came from extensive modeling. We looked at antenna power budgets, population densities, and backhaul capacity. We didn’t start with what we could build. We started with what people need and worked backwards.”

A Certified Aircraft: Not an Experiment

Gregory is clear: the goal was not just to fly. It was to serve.

Other HAPS developers often begin by building an aircraft, then exploring possible use cases.

“We flipped that logic,” he said. “We started with the service requirement: terrestrial-grade connectivity from the stratosphere: and built the aircraft to meet that outcome.”

That means the system is certified by civil aviation authorities. It will operate in controlled airspace, with ground-based pilots communicating with air traffic control during ascent and descent. Once in position, it flies autonomously.

“This is not a speculative build. This is a flight-ready platform designed to deliver coverage where nothing else can,” Gregory noted.

The Tech: A Phased-Array Antenna with Precision Control

Coverage from the stratosphere is only useful if the signal can hold steady.

That’s where the phased-array antenna comes in, a 3-meter-wide system with 2,048 elements, capable of projecting 450 steerable beams simultaneously.

Each beam is a cell on the ground. And thanks to real-time software stabilization, the beams stay fixed in place, even if the aircraft shifts slightly.

“The beam control is precise,” said Gregory. “We can shape coverage any way we want - wide for rural zones, dense for urban hubs.”

The array was designed in tandem with the aircraft itself. Both were built to deliver direct-to-device mobile service, meaning phones can connect without dishes, dongles, or external hardware.

A Scalable Solution is the Best Solution

While 15,000 square kilometers is the baseline, the system can adapt to meet different needs.

“We’re working on a project that targets a much smaller footprint,” Gregory clarifies. “In that case, the density of demand is high, so the coverage area shrinks. But the aircraft still delivers.”

That adaptability makes the system useful across a wide range of scenarios:

• Rural connectivity where ground towers are not viable

• Disaster response zones where infrastructure is damaged

• Urban areas with short-term coverage needs or seasonal spikes

And because the aircraft is built for deployment, not just demonstration, these use cases are operationally realistic.

Integration with the World Mobile ecosystem

World Mobile Stratospheric is part of the same fabric as EarthNodes, AirNodes, and the World Mobile Chain.

“It’s not a standalone layer,” said Gregory. “It integrates with the network we’ve already built, and it extends that network into places that couldn’t be reached before.”

Each aircraft transmits through the same blockchain-verified infrastructure. Traffic is logged by EarthNodes. Value is distributed through the same tokenized systems.

And with up to 500 discrete cells onboard, the aircraft opens new models for decentralized participation.

Where We Fly Next

In the coming months, demonstration flights will begin at lower altitudes. These test runs will use scaled-down versions of the phased-array antenna, deployed from conventional aircraft.

The purpose is twofold:

• Prove the technology in real-world environments

• Show the system to governments, partners, and communities

“These demos aren’t just for testing,” Gregory added. “They’ll have real commercial applications in disaster response and emergency telecom.”

Long term, the goal is broader deployment.

• In the United States, Gregory sees potential alignment with BEAD-funded rural connectivity projects.

• In the UK, he points to the Scottish Highlands, where terrain makes towers inefficient.

• In Indonesia, our partners at Protelindo are preparing the ground for regional expansion.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all solution,” Gregory said. “But it opens the door to regions where every other model breaks down.”

From ground towers to blockchain to stratospheric aircraft, we’re redesigning what mobile infrastructure can be, and who it can serve.

The future of connectivity isn’t on the ground. It isn’t in orbit. It’s between the two, where precision meets scale, and where service is built to deliver.

Join the movement. Reclaim power over the ground, the skies, and everything in between.