How HAPS Can Close the Connectivity Gap in Africa and Asia

Across Africa and Asia, digital connectivity is no longer a luxury; it is a prerequisite for economic growth, access to public services, education, healthcare, and resilience. Yet despite major advances in mobile networks and fibre deployment, hundreds of millions of people remain underserved or entirely unconnected. For governments, operators, and investors, the challenge is clear: how can broadband be extended quickly and affordably across vast rural areas, difficult terrain, and dispersed populations? High-altitude platform stations (HAPS) are increasingly emerging as a credible answer.

The scale of the connectivity gap

The digital divide remains stark across both continents. According to the International Telecommunication Union, around 37% of the world’s population was still offline in 2023, representing roughly 2.6 billion people. A large share of that population lives in Africa and Asia, where geography, lower average incomes, and uneven infrastructure investment continue to limit coverage.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the least connected region globally. GSMA data shows that while mobile broadband coverage has improved, a substantial usage gap persists: many people live within network range but remain unable to access reliable, affordable internet services. In parts of rural Africa, the economics of terrestrial deployment remain challenging, with low population density and weak backhaul making conventional towers and fibre difficult to justify.

Asia presents a different but equally complex picture. Major economies such as India, Indonesia, and the Philippines have made significant progress in expanding mobile internet access, yet millions of people across mountainous regions, islands, forests, and remote border areas still face poor or intermittent connectivity. In archipelagic and landlocked markets alike, terrain can turn last-mile deployment into a long-term infrastructure bottleneck.

Why traditional infrastructure alone is not enough

Fibre remains the gold standard for high-capacity connectivity, and mobile towers are essential for access delivery. However, both face practical constraints in underserved regions. Laying fibre across deserts, rainforests, or mountain ranges is capital-intensive and slow. Building towers in sparsely populated areas often produces low returns on investment, particularly where grid power is unreliable and logistics costs are high.

Low Earth orbit satellite services are helping improve the picture, especially for enterprise, government, and remote community use cases. But satellite capacity can still be costly, spectrum coordination remains important, and operators may seek alternatives that integrate more easily with terrestrial networks while delivering lower latency and more targeted regional coverage.

This is where HAPS offers a distinct value proposition.

What HAPS brings to the connectivity equation

HAPS are aircraft or airship-based platforms operating in the stratosphere, typically around 20 kilometres above the Earth, far above commercial air traffic and weather systems. From that altitude, a single platform can provide wide-area coverage over a large footprint while maintaining line-of-sight communications.

For connectivity missions, HAPS can function as aerial base stations, relays, or backhaul nodes. They can complement terrestrial mobile networks by extending 4G or 5G coverage into areas where towers are uneconomic, or by restoring service rapidly after natural disasters and network outages. Compared with conventional infrastructure, HAPS can reduce the need for dense ground buildout while still delivering targeted, regional capacity.

One of the most attractive features of HAPS is flexibility. Unlike fixed towers, a platform can be deployed, repositioned, and optimised based on demand patterns, emergency needs, or seasonal conditions. For governments and mobile network operators, that creates a powerful tool for reaching communities that have historically sat at the edge of investment models.

A strong fit for Africa and Asia

The business case for HAPS is particularly compelling in emerging markets where the connectivity gap overlaps with difficult geography. In Africa, HAPS can help bridge coverage gaps across the Sahel, central forest regions, mining corridors, agricultural zones, and remote cross-border communities. In Asia, they are well suited to island chains, high-altitude terrain, and disaster-prone regions where terrestrial infrastructure is vulnerable.

The social and economic upside is substantial. The World Bank has repeatedly linked broadband expansion to productivity, market access, financial inclusion, and job creation. Even modest improvements in connectivity can transform outcomes for schools, clinics, small businesses, and local administrations. For example, reliable broadband can support remote diagnostics in rural health systems, digital payments for small merchants, precision agriculture services, and access to cloud-based tools for public agencies.

HAPS also aligns with universal service ambitions. Many governments in Africa and Asia have set digital transformation targets that include expanding rural connectivity, improving resilience, and enabling e-government services. Because HAPS can be deployed faster than major terrestrial builds, they can help accelerate progress against these policy goals.

From concept to ecosystem

The HAPS market is moving from experimental programmes toward commercial relevance. Industry forecasts vary, but multiple analysts expect robust growth over the next decade as platform endurance, payload performance, solar power systems, and telecommunications integration improve. Importantly, HAPS is not a standalone replacement for fibre, mobile towers, or satellites. Its true value lies in becoming part of a hybrid connectivity architecture.

In that architecture, fibre provides core capacity, terrestrial mobile networks serve high-demand population centres, satellites cover ultra-remote zones, and HAPS fills the strategic middle ground: wide-area, lower-latency, rapidly deployable coverage over underserved regions. For operators, this can improve network economics. For regulators, it can expand service availability without waiting years for full ground infrastructure rollout. For investors, it opens a new category of digital infrastructure with clear development impact.

Regulatory progress will be essential. Spectrum frameworks, airspace coordination, and cross-border operating rules must evolve to support scalable deployments. Encouragingly, aviation and telecommunications authorities are increasingly engaging with the HAPS sector, recognising its potential role in national broadband strategies and emergency communications planning.

The opportunity ahead

Closing the connectivity gap across Africa and Asia will require more than one technology. It will demand integrated solutions that are cost-effective, resilient, and tailored to local realities. HAPS is emerging as one of the most promising tools in that mix, offering a practical path to extend coverage where conventional models fall short.

For public-sector leaders, the question is how to create enabling policy and procurement frameworks. For mobile operators, it is how to use HAPS to unlock new coverage and backhaul economics. For investors, it is how to participate in a market that sits at the intersection of aerospace, telecoms, and digital development.

As connectivity becomes ever more central to national competitiveness, HAPS is set to play a pivotal role in bringing millions more people online across Africa and Asia. To explore how stratospheric platforms can support your connectivity strategy, partner roadmap, or public-service mission, connect with INNO HAPS.