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And Helium is only for low-bandwidth applications (e.g.., IoT), and is not a substitute for an ISP or even hotspot purposes.
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Except Helium is now also offering 5G and have WiFi on the roadmap.
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Thank you for pointing that out. I think at one point in time I had seen that announced, but somehow I was thinking Helium was still just LoRaWAN.
I do see this restriction in their FAQ:
Q.) Can I host a Helium 5G Hotspot if I am residing outside of the U.S.? A.) The Helium 5G network is currently only available in the U.S. Please stay tuned for updates regarding the expansion of the network.
But there is indeed coverage at some level today:
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The 5G rollout just started recently. Unfortunately, Nova Labs have to get licensed spectrum in every single individual country they want to roll out 5G radios in. In the US they are using the CBRS band which is open for public use. I don’t think many other countries have anything similar so it’s possible, likely even, that Helium based 5G won’t be available in a large number anytime soon.
That said, the idea is great. Cellular carriers have very little incentive to build out infrastructure in rural areas and licensing spectrum is extremely expensive. So being able to a) rely on a decentralized 5G infrastructure in areas they don’t offer coverage in themselves and b) offload users in high density areas to different frequencies is valuable for everyone, including the telco companies.
Just to be very clear. I don’t buy HNT or speculate in its price, but I do use the network with dozens of LoRa devices and love the idea. There are other LoRa networks such as TTN but the Helium network dwarfs other alternatives in terms of coverage since there’s an incentive to set up hotspots in areas with poor coverage
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Anything can be money. Doesn’t mean that it’s anywhere near as good money as Bitcoin is but it has a value and it’s provided as an incentive to route data traffic for IoT devices, similarly to what you describe in your post.
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Believing anything can be money explains why you brought up Helium.
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Humans have literally used almost everything as money throughout history. If you haven’t read “The Bitcoin Standard” you might want to consider doing so :)
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Please look up the words "almost" and "everything"
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