Wireless network Helium, powered by cryptocurrency, will soon be able to introduce its mobile 5G vision to a large number of consumers. Today, the company that founded the Helium network, Nova Labs, disclosed that it had joined up with T-Mobile to launch a brand-new 5G wireless service dubbed Helium Mobile.
For users in the US, Helium Mobile will be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service that uses both the T-Mobile and Helium networks. The service, which is scheduled to be live in the first quarter of 2023, will utilize both Helium’s user-operated 5G nodes and T-extensive Mobile’s nationwide 5G network.
The service would combine networks and switch between the two as necessary, according to Nova Labs, and will have two big financial advantages over conventional services: subscriptions will start at just $5 per month, and customers can elect to receive cryptocurrency token rewards for exchanging data.
The use of Helium’s decentralized 5G network, which has more than 4,500 active user-operated nodes at this time, according to Boris Renski, co-founder and CEO of FreedomFi, a firmware and hardware manufacturer owned by Nova Labs, means that Nova doesn’t have to make capital investments to build out infrastructure.
He told Decrypt, “That allows us to develop a cellular network with completely disruptive economics.”
Additionally, Helium Mobile will give users the option to receive rewards in MOBILE tokens in exchange for anonymized information about how they utilize the network. Since the information would be used to track network quality and availability as it scales, Renski stated that the service will treat such users as contributors—but it is entirely optional.
Helium is a decentralized network of wireless hotspots that rewards users with cryptocurrency tokens for maintaining nodes and assisting the network. Currently, there are more than 950,000 node operators in the original Helium network, which was designed to power Internet of Things (IoT) devices like sensors and trackers.
Since the 5G hardware is now far more expensive than the nodes that enable the original IoT network, the 5G network is newer and has far fewer users than the IoT network as a whole. With a view to enabling additional wireless protocols in the future, the Helium Foundation disclosed plans to spin off the first HNT reward token and issue new tokens for each network in June.
