Helium, Xnet pivot from CBRS to Wi-FiHelium, Xnet pivot from CBRS to Wi-Fi

Two big players in the market for decentralized wireless networks, Helium and Xnet, are now pursuing Wi-Fi connections instead of using the 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum band, and both are claiming major cellular offloading agreements as a result.

Wi-Fi is "easier to implement," Mario Di Dio, general manager of Nova Labs' Helium network, told Light Reading.

Di Dio said that decentralized wireless networks in CBRS spectrum were troubled by poor user experience and other problems. He said that Wi-Fi, using Passpoint technology, is more mature and easier to deploy.

Passpoint, also known as Hotspot 2.0, was developed more than a decade ago to streamline and secure the process of connecting to Wi-Fi networks. It's widely supported across smartphones and other gadgets. CBRS, meanwhile, is a spectrum band released a few years ago for commercial wireless operations, including 4G and 5G networks. Helium, Xnet and other decentralized wireless companies put CBRS at the center of their early network buildout efforts.

Xnet and Helium use a decentralized wireless business model, which rewards people with cryptocurrency for adding transmission sites to their respective networks. But they're no longer pushing those site operators to deploy expensive CBRS radios, which can cost several thousand dollars each.

Instead, they're urging participants to buy and run Wi-Fi hotspots, which typically cost just a few hundred dollars. However, the hotspots generally do not cover as much territory – whether indoors or outdoors – as CBRS sites.

To be clear though: Neither company has given up on CBRS completely. For example, Xnet officials said they continue to eye CBRS for rural areas.

AT&T's Xnet offloading opportunity

Both Xnet and Helium claim Wi-Fi offloading agreements with major wireless network operators. Helium officials said the company has deals with two of the nation's three big 5G network operators as well as several MVNOs. They declined to name the operators or the MVNOs.

Meanwhile, Xnet representatives claim an offload deal with one major 5G network operator and one major MVNO. They also would not name the companies, but sources familiar with Xnet's operation told Light Reading the 5G operator is AT&T. Officials from AT&T declined to comment.

"There's a hunger for offload practically everywhere," Xnet founder and CEO Richard DeVaul told Light Reading.

DeVaul – a former Google executive – founded Xnet in 2021 with the goal of using a decentralized wireless business model to build carrier-grade wireless networks in locations where big cellular network operators say they need additional network capacity.

Today, DeVaul said Xnet counts roughly 1,000 such Wi-Fi locations, and the company hopes to increase that to 15,000 total sites by next year. Those sites are generally in high-traffic indoor locations and are scattered around the country.

The per-GB offload calculation

"We're getting paid per GB," said Tom Beirith, another Xnet executive. He explained that Xnet's customers – the 5G operator and the MVNO – are paying Xnet to offload their customers' network traffic onto Xnet's sites. Xnet is then rewarding its hotspot operators with Xnet's cryptocurrency tokens.

Beirith said that, on average, Xnet hotspot operators are earning around $4 in Xnet tokens for every GB that is offloaded onto their sites.

For Nova Labs' Helium that number is around $0.50 for every GB that's offloaded. Nova Labs' Di Dio said the company counts about 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.

"Those carriers are actually paying," Di Dio said of Nova Labs' offload partners. As a result, "the hotspot owner gets rewarded."

There is precedent for Passpoint powered Wi-Fi offloading. Both AT&T and Verizon have both offloaded their customers' traffic onto Boingo's Wi-Fi networks through Passpoint. Comcast and Charter Communications also use Passpoint to offload their MVNO customers onto their public Wi-Fi hotspots, which reduces their MVNO payments to Verizon. Comcast counts 23 million Wi-Fi sites, while Charter counts over 1 million.

The difference with Xnet and Helium, though, is that small venues like coffee shop owners, independent operators and others can add their Wi-Fi hotspots into the companies' Passpoint system and receive cryptocurrency rewards as a result. Thus, they're targeting smaller venues than the big airports, stadiums and other locations that companies like Boingo or Boldyn Networks service.

On its website, Helium tracks the amount of data its offload partners are pushing onto its hotspots.

From DeWi to DePIN

Helium and Xnet used to fall under the acronym DeWi (for decentralized wireless) but today they use DePIN, for decentralized physical infrastructure network. That's because other companies have applied the decentralized concept to markets ranging from energy to mapping. There are now DePIN companies hoping to use cryptocurrency to encourage the construction of solar panels, the creation of street-view maps and all sorts of other physical elements.

Helium was a pioneer in the market because it used its own Helium cryptocurrency tokens to reward users who added sites to its LoRa network for Internet of Things (IoT) connections. Helium then sought to expand that concept to 4G and 5G sites using the CBRS spectrum band.

To bring attention to its efforts, Helium last year launched an MVNO through T-Mobile. Today that offering counts around 100,000 customers, who can also access Helium's growing network of DePIN Wi-Fi hotspots.

Xnet, for its part, is not pursuing the consumer market through an MVNO. Instead, it's focused squarely on the carrier offload opportunity.

Other companies playing in the DePIN sector of the telecom market include World Mobile, Really and Karrier One.

The CBRS debate

A DePIN shift from CBRS to Wi-Fi comes at an inopportune time as a chorus of big cellular operators argues that the 3.5GHz spectrum band is underused.

"We can and should do better with this prime spectrum," wrote Rhonda Johnson, AT&T's EVP of Federal Regulatory Relations, in a recent post to the operator's website. Johnson proposed an incentive auction of the band, using the proceeds to finance the relocation of current CBRS operations out of the band.

Supporters of the band have rejected the notion that CBRS is wasted. But that debate underpins a bigger battle brewing over the future of spectrum licensing in the US. The cellular industry continues to favor exclusive licensing scenarios, but cable companies and others argue that the spectrum sharing mechanisms developed for the CBRS band ought to be extended into other bands.

Other CBRS spectrum users include fixed wireless Internet providers, cable companies, private wireless networking players and companies offering neutral host indoor wireless coverage, among others. Verizon uses CBRS to bolster its 4G and 5G networks.