Helium's successful migration to Solana is not only a technological victory, but also a victory for development. By introducing a $5 unlimited plan, Helium Mobile is disrupting the traditional telecommunications industry and proving the enormous potential of high-performance, low-cost decentralized networks.
Background of Helium's migration to Solana
Helium, the blockchain-powered wireless network, successfully migrated from its own layer one blockchain platform to Solana this year. During this migration process, a representative NFT was minted for each physical hotspot node running on the Helium network, totaling over 991,000 Solana NFTs.
This migration is the most significant use case of Solana's new state compression feature (cNFT), which allows creators to mint a large number of NFTs at a relatively low cost. The Solana Foundation stated that this process reduces the estimated cost of minting one million NFTs to approximately 113 SOL, compared to the cost of minting one million NFTs without compression technology, which is as high as 253,000 SOL.
Cost comparison of compressed NFT technology
Helium introduces $5 unlimited plan
In this context, Helium has taken an important step by introducing a $5 unlimited plan, which includes unlimited calls, texts, and data, lowering the average cost of phone bills in the United States by 95%. This is undoubtedly a disruptive move in the telecommunications industry. The innovation of Helium Mobile lies in its integration of the Helium Mobile network, built by people, with the largest 5G network of its partners, creating a unique dynamic coverage model.
By utilizing a network owned and operated by individuals rather than large corporations, this network can significantly reduce costs to provide mobile services with unprecedented pricing. Subscribers can also help the Helium Network community strategically deploy network coverage by choosing to share their location data, and in return, they have the opportunity to receive MOBILE token rewards.
Miami: The first city
After the beta testing phase, Helium Mobile chose Miami as the first city to launch its services. This decision was made based on factors such as community voting and existing coverage to ensure that Helium Mobile provides the best service to subscribers. This not only allows Helium Mobile to gain organic growth through word-of-mouth in its customer base but also effectively reduces the overall cost of acquiring new customers.
Conclusion
The decentralized world is providing a mobile network landscape that is different from the current status quo, making connectivity both affordable and accessible. Helium's success case reveals the strong capabilities and vast potential of Solana. By building applications based on Solana, we can not only achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement but also involve more people in the process of building the network and share its benefits. This model will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the traditional telecommunications industry, and we look forward to seeing more innovation and breakthroughs.