‘Let the shop owner run the network’: Helium bets big on decentralized 5G

Helium is quietly building what might be the most disruptive telecom network in America — and they’re doing it with crypto. The company has evolved from an Internet of Things (IoT) experiment into the world’s largest decentralized wireless network. Now, with a growing mobile footprint and backing from the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) movement, it’s aiming to completely rewire how infrastructure gets built. “Helium is the world's largest decentralized wireless network,” said Abhay Kumar, Protocol Lead at Helium in a conversation with Mehab Qureshi, Senior Editor, TheStreet Roundtable . “We started back over six years ago now. We built a new way of deploying infrastructure. Fundamentally, what we're interested in is how can you build wireless infrastructure in a way that enables new kinds of business models?” Launched in 2019, Helium began as a decentralized wireless network focused on the Internet of Things (IoT). It uses crypto incentives to encourage individuals to deploy and operate network infrastructure. Today, Helium powers both IoT and 5G mobile networks, making it a leading player in the DePIN space. From IoT to free phone plans Helium began by connecting devices — now it connects people. Its expansion into mobile has led to the creation of Helium Mobile, a new carrier that rides on a hybrid network of traditional infrastructure and crypto-incentivized nodes. “In the US you can buy a cell phone plan for free,” Kumar said. “We launched a carrier ourselves. So Helium Mobile you can use if you're in the US... you can have a free phone plan. You can pay $15 a month for a somewhat limited phone plan.” The reason that’s possible, Kumar explained, is because Helium’s protocol slashes bandwidth costs for carriers. “If you're a carrier and you're building on the Helium network, you're paying 50 cents a gigabyte when your customer is using it,” he said — a fraction of traditional rates. This cost-saving is driven by a DePIN model that lets individuals or businesses install wireless nodes (like 5G radios) and earn crypto in return. “So this is why — well, let the shop owner put a radio in their shop and provide better service to all of their customers,” Kumar explained. “They like it because their customers are happier. The carriers are happy because they couldn't get to every one of these shop owners. And then us as a network, we love it because we're able to enable the whole thing.” Helium’s decentralized infrastructure model has become a leading example of what DePIN can achieve. “We were lucky to be around before this idea was tokened,” Kumar said. “We were lucky to be there before we sort of started to establish this sort of category.”