Helium, the buzzy crypto-fueled shared wireless network that pays people to host hotspots, has been scrapping its partnership in the past few days. After Mashable discovered bikeshare provider Lime’s partnership with Helium (opens in a new window) Salesforce was found to say “Helium is not a Salesforce partner (opens in a new window),” PCMag has now revealed. No device sold can currently include any general understanding of 5G as “helium 5G”.
The “Helium 5G” network is instead a 4G LTE CBRS network, which currently has significant advantages over 5G, but does not have the “5G” nickname Helium and its partners want for marketing. So it’s just calling it 5G, because apparently, anyone can use any word to mean anything.
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It says it’s 5G, but…
Helium advertises its “5G” network prominently on its website by saying “Helium 5G is here – the second major wireless network backed by the Helium blockchain.” Its partners include two carriers, Dish and GigSky, as well as five hardware providers—FreedomFi, Bisales, Mosolabs, Calchip and Bobcat.
The play works like this: You buy a FreedomFi “gateway” box and a small cell. You plug the gateway box into your wired Internet. You then earn a crypto token called “Mobile” for providing proof of coverage, along with more crypto for data transfer to your cell at a later date (opens in a new window). The “Mobile” token is converted into Helium’s HNT token, which is tradable on crypto exchanges. Then, Helium leases the network to other cellular providers, whose customers will be able to use it to fill gaps in coverage.
This isn’t a bad idea. Stephen Leotis, cofounder of MosoLabs, which builds small cells for the Helium network, says the crypto scheme lets Helium incentivize or monetize users where coverage is needed or not. If a Helium client wants coverage in Dubuque, Helium may offer better incentives in Dubuque, while if Pittsburgh is too saturated, Helium will withhold rewards for new Pittsburgh hotspots.
But as a longtime veteran of the 5G badge wars, this analyst can say that one of the few things the industry has agreed upon so far is that, to call it “5G,” Must be using a radio encoding known as 5G NR somewhere in your system. (Here’s what Qualcomm is saying outright (opens in a new window).) Carriers play very fast and loose, but 5G NR has been the red line.
Helium is not available even from such a low rod. All of its partners offer only 4G LTE running on the CBRS band, also known as B48. You can actually run 5G over CBRS, but Helium’s partners aren’t doing that yet.
Helium uses the CBRS band because some parts of it are unlicensed, so they are not reserved for mobile carriers. While we’ve had commercial 4G CBRS for a year and a half now, the technology for doing 5G over CBRS is pretty new: Verizon just rolled it out last month.
A future helium partner, MNTD, promises an all-in-one, 5G NR hotspot by the end of this year, but it’s not on the market yet.
Right now, all radios in use in Helium’s network are 4G LTE, not 5G, and any devices that connect to the network will not have a 5G connection.
It’s Just A ‘Sexier Name’
FreedomFi says its Helium products are 5G. At the moment, there is no 5G cell that connects to the FreedomFi gateway. (credit: FreedomFi)
FreedomFi’s Boris Rensky says 5G NR has significant advantages over using 4G over CBRS, but he’s calling his LTE 5G anyway.
“We believe we call this setup Helium 5G vs LTE because it feels cooler. If everyone in the industry can do it, so can we,” FreedomFi says on its FAQ page. But “everyone else” isn’t doing that. There are only participants in the helium ecosystem.
“5G is a sexist name,” Leotis says. “The FreedomFi gateway and the core that’s built on the Magma platform are 5G ready, but the radio itself, they’re LTE today.”
MosoLabs describes a ‘5G blockchain’, a completely meaningless phrase. (credit: Mosolabs)
FreedomFi’s argument is that you can call it 5G if it has a “5G-compatible architecture for network cores,” but it doesn’t have a 5G radio. I’ve never heard that argument from anyone else in the industry; The common minimum standard for 5G is that somewhere, a 5G NR radio is included.
“5G ready” and “5G compliant” are not 5G. if i ready to rock‘I’m ready to rock, but I’m not really rocking that time. I am telling you that I can do awesome in short time in future. But that moment? Do not move Not even AT&T goes as far as FreedomFi. When it leans on an “E” to say its LTE network is 5GE, it’s not calling it 5G. It’s still shady, but less shady than what FreedomFi is doing here.
Helium beats 5G coverage
Helium is also providing more coverage for its 5G network than it currently is.
Helium Explorer (opens in a new window) says there are currently 2,009 “5G Hotspots” in 47 US states. The map’s minimum resolution is hex 1km on a side, and in a quick test in New York City, I found no more than 70-meter range seen on a Helium LTE hotspot. This means that helium can fill wide areas on its map but can only serve small spaces.
Right now, GigSky (Opens in new window) The only way for consumers to use the new network. Those with CBRS-compatible phones (B48) can download the GigSky app and choose the “Helium Bundle,” which costs $60 for 60 days and includes 5GB of data on major US networks, as well as unlimited data on the Helium network. is included. As we’ve covered before, the dish has an arrangement with helium but a lot of the elements are obscured.
I signed up for GigSky service on an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S22+ with the Netmonitor Pro application (opens in a new window) and took it out in NYC for a walk in several covered hexes of helium. GigSky service is on AT&T most of the time, using a single LTE channel from different LTE bands.
The hex here is from the Helium Explorer website, showing theoretical helium 5G coverage. The green dots are where I really saw the coverage. (credit: Helium/Sasha Segan)
The top green dot was just outside The Standard, a premier NYC hotel with a lively outdoor patio. (credit: Helium/Sasha Segan)
For brief moments in my testing, the phone fell into an oddly badged, lower-case “LTE” mode, with no frequency band information available. I think it’s helium. Interestingly, the Helium network did not have its own mobile network code or standard cell ID. The phone’s field test mode said it was on AT&T the entire time.
Part of the mapping problem may be the difference between how helium networks are being deployed and the way most people perceive coverage in publicly available mobile networks. According to Helium, 78% of its hotspots are “indoor” hotspots, which can only provide coverage within a single building. In Manhattan’s West Village, I found a brief helium blip on the patio of The Standard Hotel. Its bustling, noisy outdoor bar is the perfect place to add supplemental cellular capacity. But just like 4G LTE is good, it’s not 5G, so it’s nice to have a network in a standard hotel, but it’s not a 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer hex.
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Helium is very early in its rollout, now advertising it as part of its “mobile genesis” period where it’s up and running right now. But like calling 4G “5G” when it doesn’t, covering the entire hex of the map when it’s really just small spots doesn’t seem completely honest.
4G Is Better (For Now!)
This ‘Helium 5G Bundle’ is a 4G mini cell. (credit: Sasha Segan)
Rensky and Leotis say 4G LTE is a better option for CBRS spectrum at the moment, but they’ll call it 5G anyway.
Their first argument is that CBRS does not have the channel size to make up the performance difference between 4G and 5G. It’s not completely true. With 4G, the CBRS channel size increases to 20MHz; 5G can use a maximum of 100MHz channel size in this band, so there is actually a potential advantage. Leotis noted that a cloud system that interacts between shared CBRS users is likely to deliver smaller channel allocations in densely populated areas.
Rensky and Leotis also say that 5G CBRS equipment will be more expensive.
“5G radios are incredibly expensive, and you’re going to pay a lot for 5G, which we see as very little value on top of CBRS,” Leotis says.
According to the company’s site, MNTD’s hotspot bundle is expected to cost between $1,500 and $2,000, which is competitive with MosoLabs’ $1,800 LTE+ gateway bundle. Of course, MNTD isn’t selling it yet, so it can claim whatever it wants.
The more important kicker is that 4G CBRS phones and small cells are widely available, and 5G ones are not. Most US phones released in the last two years have 4G CBRS. But generally only this year’s phones, with few exceptions, have 5G CBRS. So if Helium wants to get started with devices its affiliates can sell and build a network that most people can use, it’s making a smart choice with CBRS LTE. It’s just calling it by the wrong name.
What is 5G? Baby Don’t Hurt Me, Don’t Hurt Me, No More
In a blog post, Helium’s founder Amir Haleem denied any responsibility (opens in a new window) for calling his network “5G”, shifting the blame to FreedomFi, where Rensky claims 5G as its own. Adds another “G” using the unusual definition. 4G LTE Small Cell.
The thing is, FreedomFi made the right choice. 4G is not going away. More phones support 4G CBRS than 5G CBRS. 4G equipment is likely to be more available and cheaper than 5G equipment for some time.
But “Helium 4G,” alas, isn’t the futuristic forward-looking marketing piza that attracts big-name venture capital dollars. When truth collides with a good story, a good story usually wins, but it’s important to point out the truth nonetheless.
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