Helium Partners with Dish

I first wrote about Helium back at the beginning of September, then the Internet of Things network was announcing a partnership with the city of San Diego to provide funding for low-income neighborhoods. Now the startup is partnering its 5g Network FreedomFi with Dish Network, enabling Dish wireless customers to run Helium nodes, sharing wireless connectivity.

Originally developed to power IoT devices such as trackers and sensors, Helium’s LongFi network now boasts over 250,000 user-operated nodes, with another 500,000 pre-ordered and ready to be shipped around the globe.

The network wasn’t originally developed to support devices like smartphones, tablets, and pcs but the new 5G network created in tandem with FreedomFi will. Just like its internet service in return, the user will be rewarded in HNT token, which can then be swapped for other cryptos at an exchange.

“Dish understands the potential blockchain can have on the wireless industry, and as the first major carrier to join The People's Network, this partnership is real validation that the HNT incentive model is a powerful tool for deploying infrastructure at scale,” Helium COO Frank Mong told Decrypt.

This couldn’t be more perfect timing for Dish Network, Helium token started the year trading at $1.36 and hit an all-time high of $26.43 in August currently, it trades at $21

With the rise of streaming services, there hasn’t been much need for cable plans, with most “cutting the cord” and switching exclusively to a-la-cart. In tandem, this has led to it being almost as expensive to watch all the shows you like, as it was to have a cable plan, but that’s an article for another day.

I’m gonna be honest I hadn’t thought about the grandfather of a tech company that is Dish, in a long time, and I assume most of you reading can say the same. The news of their wireless network was broken to me in this article as well, obviously showing signs of obscurity this move is one that could save the once giant company. A move that you shouldn’t be surprised if you see mimicked within the coming months and years.