Is Decentralization the Key to Complete Coverage?

Internet connectivity is easy to take for granted but in reality, 27.6 million US households do not have home internet access. That is a staggering statistic, and sadly this number only represents a portion of the unconnected with many more having poor and unreliable connectivity despite technically having access. The acceleration of the role of digital we have seen in the last two years only adds to the issue this digital divide presents and it has become more critical than ever before to close the connectivity gap impacting many. The question is what can be done about it and on what time scale?

The problem with the status quo

The typical response from traditional carriers as to why internet connectivity is not reaching 100% of communities is that it is costly, time-consuming, and difficult to build out infrastructure that covers the entire population. As a result, broadband providers to date have gone for the easy wins – dense urban and suburban areas. There now needs to be an alternative to address the large number of remaining coverage gaps. In 2020, the US Federal Communication Commission’s authorized the use of Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum bands to be used for new private wireless networks. This economically friendly approach has a range of use cases - a promising one being that it allows the development of decentralized network models which have the potential to unlock connectivity and address these gaps.

What is a decentralized network?

Decentralized networks offer an alternative and much more collaborative approach to delivering connectivity to areas of need. They still need to use high-performance standards-based cellular wireless equipment, such as access points (small cells) and network gateways. The public can easily purchase this network equipment online from new types of service providers, enabling them to deliver secure, high-performance wireless connectivity indoors and out, across their home, business, or community.

It is a flexible model that puts the public much more in the driving seat on expanding cellular coverage, as they have the potential to extend broadband connectivity into underserved areas without being constrained by restrictions faced by traditional wireless carriers. The affordable small cell technology, which is discreet enough to ensure that visual impact does not hold back adoption, is already being distributed through new decentralized network operators like FreedomFi and Pollen Mobile. FreedomFi alone shipped 18,500 gateways since October 2021, demonstrating the appetite for this cooperative approach to connectivity.

Where’s the incentive?

However, technology alone can only take us so far. Acknowledging this is critical to ensure decentralized networks are adopted widely and are successful, where other small cell-based approaches have fallen short. The incentive is the absolute crux of whether decentralized networks will be successful in unlocking a new approach to coverage. The incentives, therefore, need to be twofold; connectivity and new economics for those that participate in the network build-out.

First and foremost, connectivity. A key driver for adoption is obvious – it will enable digital inclusion in areas previously lacking access to affordable connectivity. This decentralized style of infrastructure overcomes the challenges of traditional rollouts and the promise of connectivity and the opportunities it unlocks is a powerful draw.

However, we have seen similar approaches before that have not taken off. Therefore, a second incentive is key, and it comes in the form of compensation or earning opportunities for those who invest and deploy the network access points. When participants (who can be residential users, enterprises, or even other service providers) invest in the hardware for a decentralized network (small cells and gateways), they can be compensated in cryptocurrency by the operator. In short, these new operators use standards-based wireless technology that continues to become less costly and increasingly easier to deploy.

For example, when either an individual or a large carrier looking to offload traffic connects to their access device, the equipment owner earns cryptocurrency – Helium Network Tokens (HNTs) in the case of FreedomFi and PollenCoin in the case of Pollen Mobile. Creating a model for a decentralized network that has multiple incentives to drive adoption will set this approach apart in terms of generating the widespread uptake needed for success.

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Baicells small cells commoditizing connectivity

Baicells small cells are helping to commoditize network connectivity on a number of fronts. Today they provide operators and enterprises with powerful, cost-effective radios, that deliver standards-based cellular connectivity for building out private (CBRS and LoRa) or public networks (LTE and 5G). ?And these same radios can easily be deployed in these decentralized networks by these new types of operators to help deliver on the promise of ubiquitous connectivity. Case in point is both FreedomFi and Pollen Mobile, who have made the decision to offer Baicells small cells for the buildout of their decentralized networks. We are already seeing huge demand for this infrastructure and it will play a big role in delivering connectivity to the under-connected.

Connectivity everywhere is a concept that has been chased for decades and the limitations of traditional approaches to telecoms networks mean this has not been possible. But, by changing the financial model, to incent the public to extend connectivity into previously unconnected areas, there is a huge opportunity not only to close the digital divide but to achieve this on a much faster timescale. Therefore, the only answer to the question of extending connectivity has to lie in a dramatically new approach, and decentralized networks offer that.