- Author: @zer0tweets
- Start Date: 2024-11-14
- Category: Technical, Economic
- Original HIP PR: #1127
- Tracking Issue: #1128
- Voting Requirements: veMOBILE Holders
This proposal establishes a schedule to permanently end rewards for CBRS radios on the Helium Network. If this proposal passes, Nova Labs will assist CBRS owners with the transition by re-flashing their CBRS equipment to stock firmware (turning it into generic CBRS equipment) and offering free Wi-Fi Hotspots to affected Hotspot operators funded through a Foundation grant.
- HIP 113: Reward CBRS as Experimental
Despite the community's best efforts, we were unable to establish a user-friendly path for Helium Mobile or any of Helium’s offload partners to effectively utilize CBRS radios for data offload. There are currently approximately 4,000 CBRS radios online, accounting for about 2% of overall data on the network. At the same time:
- CBRS Hotspots receive between 10-15% of all network rewards and are expensive to maintain.
- The vast majority of support tickets filed by the community are CBRS-related.
- Hosting and maintaining a cellular network core diverts resources that could be applied more productively elsewhere.
- Wi-Fi Hotspot Deployers - will receive higher rewards.
- CBRS Hotspot Deployers - will have the opportunity to receive free Wi-Fi hardware but will eventually be required to bring their CBRS radios offline.
- MOBILE Token Holders - Could receive less HNT in to the Mobile treasury/Hotspot rewards if increase in Wi-Fi deployments is not matching/improving on removal of CBRS deployments due to A score in Utility Score.
- CBRS Hotspot Makers and Distributors - Any still holding stock will be unable to sell to Helium deployers on the MOBILE network due to lack of demand. (So Bobcat/Calchip definitely need to be informed of this HIP).
All CBRS radios that received rewards between August 1, 2024, and November 1, 2024, are eligible to receive free Wi-Fi gear as follows:
- CBRS Indoor - 1 Wi-Fi indoor Hotspot.
- Nova 430 or Moso Outdoor - 1 outdoor Wi-Fi Hotspot or 1 indoor Wi-Fi hotspot (CBRS owner can choose)
- Nova 436 Outdoor - 3 Wi-Fi Hotspots of any type (indoor or outdoor; CBRS owner can choose the mix)
Helium Foundation will issue a grant to fund the free Wi-Fi gear and will collaborate with Wi-Fi makers to administer the swap program. The Grant will be paid from the new 1.3M HNT MOBILE Growth Fund created in HIP-138.
Eligibility for free Wi-Fi is not tied to the type of gateway used in conjuction with said radios. CBRS radios that have been connected to any functional 5G gateway (FreedomFi, Bobcat 5G etc.) are all eligible. Immediately after passing this HIP, a web form will become available for eligible CBRS radio owners to provide a shipping address within the continental US to receive their Wi-Fi gear and validate ownership of the eligible CBRS radio. Shipping within continental US will be free.
Additionally, Nova Labs will publish instructions and firmware images for all CBRS Hotspot owners to re-flash their existing CBRS equipment to stock configuration. CBRS owners may keep their stock CBRS radios. Nova will also provide instructions for all FreedomFi gateways to re-flash the hardware into generic miniPCs. Re-flashing FreedomFi gateways into generic miniPC will preclude it from getting onboarded and/or receiving IoT rewards.
Support for onboarding any new CBRS radios will cease immediately upon passing this HIP. All CBRS radios will go offline and stop receiving rewards by March 1st, 2025. Any SAS fees prepaid past March 1st, 2025 will be refunded pro-rata.
FreedomFi gateways will continue to function as IoT gateways until January 1st, 2026, after which Nova will end support for the FreedomFi gateways. Onboarding of FreedomFi gateways for IoT will remain possible until January 1st, 2026. After January 1st, 2026, gateways will still remain online and continue to receive rewards, but no new firmware updates will be issued and no support queries related to gateways will be addressed.
If this HIP passes, CBRS radio owners will be able to re-flash radio firmware to a generic, stock version. After this, CBRS radios can be sold or applied for a variety of use cases. Two of the most common use cases are rural fixed wireless access and private LTE/5G networks. Additional information about use cases and deployment architectures is available on the OnGo Alliance website at https://ongoalliance.org/.
Running your own CBRS network requires a network core. Nova uses an open-source network core called Magma. Code and deployment instructions for Magma are available at https://magmacore.org/.
Helium will lose the "cool factor" associated with operating a cellular LTE network. However, practicality sometimes outweighs novelty.
It is possible that, in the future, advancements in technology and user experience with CBRS offload could improve. If this occurs, Helium will have missed the opportunity. However, this would likely require significant advancements in cell phone hardware, as well as in Android and iOS systems. The telecom industry moves slowly, so this is unlikely in the near term.
Since CBRS rewards were limited by HIP 113, the number of CBRS radios online has decreased. The additional complexity of requiring CDR validation has made it very difficult for CBRS equipment to earn rewards in boosted locations. Several community proposals are already circulating to make CDR validation requirements even stricter.
Overall, the network rewards algorithm has been evolving to prioritize Hotspots that pass real data from carrier offload partners. Since CBRS radios are effectively unable to offload carrier data, it is reasonable to assume that CBRS rewards will continue to decline.
Therefore, an alternative approach would be to do nothing and let CBRS fade out naturally.
Nova Labs will manage all the activities required in this HIP with hardware funded through a Helium Foundation grant. Other approved MOBILE Makers are eligible to participate.
- All CBRS radios are offline by March 1, 2025.
- All CBRS rewards are redirected to operators of Wi-Fi radios.
- At least 80% of Wi-Fi radios that have been provided by free are deployed and driving data and token burn on the network, no later than 6 months after passing of this HIP.