World Mobile Stratospheric, a joint venture between World Mobile and Indonesia’s leading digital infrastructure company Protelindo, has acquired a BN2T-4S Islander aircraft as part of a new collaboration with Britten-Norman. The collaboration advances World Mobile Stratospheric’s mission to extend next-generation connectivity from the skies.
The Islander will support the continued development and testing of its proprietary phased-array antenna, a central part of World Mobile Stratospheric’s development, capable of broadcasting hundreds of precision-controlled beams across a 15,000 sq. km radius directly to mobile devices.
The acquisition of this aircraft marks a key operational step in the World Mobile Stratospheric roadmap to build and validate airbone communication systems that can provide cost-effective mobile coverage to communities worldwide. Upcoming flight tests will be used to refine the antenna’s design, control systems, and network integration ahead of the realization of the first stratospheric flight.
The Engineering Case for Stratospheric Connectivity
Every layer of the atmosphere offers a different opportunity for telecommunications. Ground infrastructure provides local capacity. Satellites, flying high in the exosphere, deliver global reach but at high latency. Between these layers lies the stratosphere, a zone of stable, low-wind conditions suitable for sustained flight and wide-area coverage.
“There’s a narrow band in the stratosphere, between 60,000 and 70,000 feet, where wind conditions are benign. You’re above weather systems. Above jet stream turbulence. And you’re able to serve a very large footprint on the ground.” - Gregory Gottlieb, Head of Aerial Platforms, in an interview on World Mobile Stratospheric.
Aircraft operating in this band can maintain consistent 5G coverage while using significantly less power than orbital platforms. Because the signal travels a much shorter path than it would to satellites in orbit, latency remains close to terrestrial levels. The stratosphere sits high enough for wide coverage yet low enough to maintain real-time communication with phones on the ground, combining reach with responsiveness in a first for the telecommunications industry.
The Phased-Array Antenna: A Technical Marvel
Meet the hardware that is set to beam connectivity from the skies. World Mobile Stratospheric’s proprietary phased-array antenna is engineered to deliver direct-to-device service across 3G, 4G, 5G, and 6G standards, shaping coverage for mobile phones on the ground in real time. With 450 individually steerable beams, the array can draw virtually any coverage pattern, from a single dense urban cluster to a wide rural footprint, and keep those beams locked with software control as the aircraft moves.
The antenna is purpose-built for low-latency, high-capacity mobile connectivity, offering performance characteristics distinct from satellite systems such as Starlink and AST SpaceMobile. It also enables direct-to-mobile communication, a capability uniquely suited to airborne platforms.
Once fully operational, the World Mobile Stratospheric aircraft, loaded with the phased-array antenna, will function around nine times more cost-effectively per gigabyte than LEO satellite solutions, like Starlink. With an initial 20 MHz bandwidth and a planned upgrade to 40 MHz, unit costs will drop further, approaching an 18x improvement versus satellite solutions on a per-gigabyte basis.
The acquisition of, and testing with, the Britten-Norman Islander is a crucial step in realizing this goal.
Britten-Norman: A British Powerhouse with Decades of Excellence
Britten-Norman is the sole independent commercial aircraft producer in the United Kingdom. Since their founding in 1954, the company has built robust aircraft that serve real missions worldwide. Every airframe rolls off a British production line at the Lee-on-the-Solent facility at Daedalus Airfield, a former Royal Naval Air Station with deep aviation heritage. Today, the company has manufactured and delivered aircraft to customers in more than 120 countries.
In 1975, Britten-Norman received the Queen’s Award to Industry for technological innovation for the Trislander aircraft. Their track record is long, and most importantly for us, the results are proven and recognized.
The Islander: A Proven Workhorse
One of the most successful Britten-Norman aircraft is the Islander. First flown in 1965, it remains in continuous production, placing it among the longest manufacturing runs in aviation history.
More than 1,300 Islander aircraft have been built so far, operating across six continents and over 100 countries, from the Scottish Hebrides to the Pacific Islands. Its Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) capability, modular frame, and high-payload design have made it a trusted utility platform for everything from medical evacuation to maritime patrol.
For the development of the stratospheric aircraft, those qualities matter. Britten-Norman engineered the Islander to thrive in austere conditions such as short runways, coastal airfields, and regions with limited maintenance support. The same traits make the Islander ideal for the mission at hand. It offers a stable, certifiable platform with the power, space, and reliability to carry complex telecommunications payloads safely through extended flight testing.
The acquisition of the Islander is a milestone on the path to the Stratospheric aircraft currently in development. The World Mobile Stratospheric hydrogen-powered aircraft will integrate the revolutionary phased-array antenna, support solar input, and pioneer robust power management for long endurance. It will be weather tolerant, IoT ready, and built for rapid regional activation so service can launch quickly and deliver connectivity effectively, especially when it’s needed most.
Expediting Disaster Response from the Stratosphere
When disasters disrupt infrastructure and upend lives, restoring connectivity becomes the backbone of recovery. During World Mobile’s Operation Connecting the Disconnected after Hurricane Helene, we restored communications rapidly through its terrestrial AirNode network. World Mobile Stratospheric builds on that legacy with an unprecedented airborne layer designed for speed, scale, and stability.
The resultant World Mobile Stratospheric aircraft will lift the proprietary phased-array antenna into calm stratospheric air, establish up to 15,000 square kilometers of connectivity within minutes of arrival, and deliver direct-to-device service during emergencies to affected neighborhoods and essential workers.
What Comes Next
Flight testing with the Islander is scheduled to begin in mid-2026, with operations led by World Mobile Stratospheric alongside Britten-Norman, and system testing conducted in cooperation with BT at Adastral Park near Ipswich.
In the short term, World Mobile Stratospheric is focused on engineering preparation with the Britten-Norman technical group and specialized partners to adapt the Islander for telecommunications payloads, ensuring precise power management, structural integrity, and safe mounting for the phased-array antenna.
“This collaboration with Britten-Norman brings together world-class British aircraft engineering and World Mobile’s next-generation telecoms innovation. Our goal is to demonstrate how stratospheric communications can bring reliable 5G connectivity to places that need it most. World Mobile Stratospheric will ultimately realise the use of DePIN networks using a sharing economy model from the stratosphere. This first major step provides a crucial milestone along that journey.” - Richard Deakin, CEO of WMS
“We’re proud to work alongside World Mobile Stratospheric to advance airborne connectivity technology. The Islander provides a safe, certified platform for innovative applications like this one, and our teams have the expertise to deliver novel airborne systems with confidence and precision.” - Mark Shipp, Technical Director and Head of Design at Britten-Norman.”
The data gathered and the lessons learnt will shape the next generation of high-altitude aircraft. Moreover, all World Mobile Stratospheric aircraft will integrate seamlessly with the World Mobile network, routing traffic through EarthNodes for transparent, verifiable onchain operation.
The future of telecommunications will navigate the endless skies with razor-sharp precision, identifying and serving coverage gaps and enabling billions to reclaim power over their connectivity. The acquisition of the Islander is the foundation of that next step: a trusted aircraft built to carry the future of mobile connectivity into the air.
Join the movement. Reclaim power over your connectivity.
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