Accelerating Network Growth with Three New Hotspot Manufacturers

New mining hardware is now available for order as we welcome three new third-party manufacturers to The People’s Network following the approval of HIP 19.

To date, Helium, Inc., in partnership with RAKwireless, have been the exclusive manufacturers of Hotspot Miners. However, with the passage of HIP 19, third-party manufacturers around the world will have the opportunity to produce, sell, and compete on differentiated hardware that can serve the Helium Network in new and different ways. Today, three new third-party manufacturers are stepping forward to be the first to take advantage of the recently passed HIP: Nebra, EasyLinkin and Syncrob.it.

Nebra will be selling two new HNT miners. The first will be a rugged, industrial-grade outdoor miner enclosed in an IP67 rated case designed to withstand extreme dust, heat, and other harsh conditions. These hotspots feature remote access and have the potential to expand the geographic footprint of the Helium Network, bringing connectivity to IoT sensors in much-needed areas, like dense forests, beaches, and mountain tops. The company will also offer an attractive indoor miner as well. Both Nebra miners have gone through a technical audit and are available for orders today.

SyncroB.it will be selling a brand new indoor miner. The next-generation hotspots feature a new, elegant design with enhanced usability features that enable hosts to set up and manage gateways, and run diagnostics and repairs remotely — instead on the physical device itself — via a web-based dashboard.

The Bobcat miner from EasyLinkin is the latest hotspot to be approved by the community and pass a technical audit. It is a state of the art LoRaWAN gateway with ultra-low power consumption and a life expectancy of about 10 years. Details will be forthcoming on when the Bobcat will be available for order.

Parley Labs, a California-based company focused on building, testing and validating new technology related to autonomous and distributed systems, will be reselling the Nebra miners as of today. The new hardware is expected to hit the market starting in February 2021.

HIP 19 is already accomplishing what it set out to do, which is to help expand the network and create new offerings that ultimately benefit customers and unlock new applications for the Helium Network. The proposal, now approved, represents an incredibly important step forward for the Helium Network, one that will rapidly expand the network’s capacity to grow super-linearly. It also further decentralizes and democratizes participation in the network, which will ultimately continue to fuel the network growth loop.

The Decentralized Wireless Alliance will continue to support the expansion of the Helium Network by supporting HIPs that encourage further decentralization and incentivizing new participants to enter the market.

We’d like to thank the community, and our new manufacturers and resellers, for continuing to innovate and pushing the pace of expansion.