Can Helium Mobile disrupt the US mobile market using not much more than a growing network of Helium Wi-Fi hotspots?
Helium’s technology and business strategy includes incentives to encourage deployment, assuring Wi-Fi quality of service, and even – if all goes well – creating a positive feedback loop to drive growth. The company’s aim is to completely turn on its head how connectivity is delivered on a massive scale, the company says.
It has always been a compelling idea: When most mobile traffic runs over Wi-Fi anyway, why not create a next-generation MNO that (nearly) exclusively runs on a network of Wi-Fi hotspots? The concept has been attempted in the past but has generally not done well. Helium Mobile is now heading up a new and inspired effort by relying on a combination of cutting-edge technology and a business strategy that rewards participation. Helium says they’ve cracked the code – and that it is now only a question of time.
“We believe it is very much possible to create next generation MNO running nearly exclusively on Wi-Fi. Past efforts have been held back by a number of problems that we’ve now solved for good. And when this is coupled with blockchain technology that rewards network owners, we think Helium Mobile is on track to disrupt the market,” says Mario Di Dio, General Manager of Networks at Helium.
Perhaps the most pervasive and nagging problem solved by Helium is ensuring Wi-Fi quality. Even with plenty of Wi-Fi spectrum available and – for example – excellent Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 APs, day-to-day Wi-Fi QoE can vary a great deal. The secret sauce in this case is a service that permits phones to auto-connect to specific APs only when quality metrics are acceptable. “Using Passpoint for auto-connect is one thing and this is of course required. But access to even a giant aggregated Wi-Fi network doesn’t help much if you can’t control the quality. This is what we obsess about,” he says.
Helium doesn’t own any individual hotspots or larger enterprise Wi-Fi networks and instead the Helium Network offers incentives for individuals and companies to join the Helium footprint. Network owners are rewarded either in US$ or in Helium Network Tokens (HNT) in return for the volume of traffic delivered, Mario Di Dio says.
“This incentive is critical because it becomes a main reason for participants to keep their Wi-Fi networks in good working order. Another incentive is equally important: Auto-connecting phones to Wi-Fi creates an excellent indoor connectivity experience. This is particularly important at venues where 5G struggles – and there are plenty of those,” he says.
And Helium Mobile is already seeing early signs that its strategy is working. Specifically in Manhattan (New York City) – meaning where the density of Helium hotspots currently is the highest – 25% of Helium Mobile traffic runs on the Helium Wi-Fi network. Small businesses can purchase individual Helium APs while enterprises can connect all or any part of their Wi-Fi infrastructure to Helium to become part of the Helium network and earn revenues.
“We believe that it is possible to create a positive feedback loop: More subscribers generates more traffic, more traffic generates more revenue for hotspot owners, which in turn makes the deployment of more Helium hotspots more attractive. The more hotspots, the lower the connectivity cost for the subscriber, which attracts more subscribers, and so on,” Mario Di Dio says.
Helium’s Wi-Fi network of 120,000 APs currently serves up to 3 million users per day with a total of 80-90 terabytes of data. Thus far 600,000 mobile users have signed up for Helium Mobile, Mario Di Dio says. Helium Mobile currently offers three plans from ‘Zero’ (which literally costs nothing) to ‘Air’ to ‘Infinity’ (read more here) where the ‘Zero’ plan includes one GB of mobile data offered via a partner 5G network and 2 GB of Wi-Fi data. Helium’s Wi-Fi footprint is growing quickly and already spans a number of large public venues including Baltimore International Airport.
