Mohamed Slim Alouini is one of the world’s leading voices on near-space infrastructure. As the UNESCO Chair in Education to Connect the Unconnected and a pioneer in wireless communications at KAUST, Alouini argues that the next leap in global connectivity won’t come from satellites or towers — but from the stratosphere.
In this episode, we break down how High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) could deliver broadband to 3 billion unconnected people, unlock direct-to-phone 6G, enable smart agriculture, disaster response, and redefine how we think about infrastructure in the sky.
We explore:

• Why satellites alone can’t solve global connectivity
• The “missing middle layer” between towers and LEO mega-constellations
• How HAPS deliver low-latency broadband straight to standard smartphones
• Near-space for disaster recovery, border monitoring & smart farming
• Why HAPS avoid the satellite debris problem entirely
• The technical breakthroughs still needed: endurance, payload, free-space optics
• What a full stratospheric constellation could look like in 2040