📶 When the Crowd Shows Up

Good morning Deployers, happy Friday! Matt here, bringing you The Relay Weekly.

In the last issue, we talked about separating the real from the noise. This week, we're using the tips we got from Dylan Bane to further examine the infrastructure of connectivity. 

Centralized companies dominate the 5G market, but distributed networks are absorbing surges in cellular demand at critical moments. We have the data to prove it.

But first, here’s a birds-eye view of the landscape. 🐦

👀 On the Radar

• 📶 Helium's New Orleans network absorbed a 550% Fat Tuesday surge, hitting 143K daily unique subscribers on a day that normally sees 22K.

• 🎶 13 hotspots at Okeechobee Music Festival scaled 33.6x in a week, from 197 to 6,620 daily unique subscribers without missing a beat.

• 📡 We sat down with Omar Henry and DePIN Nomad to talk connectivity infrastructure, the limits of centralized buildouts, and where distributed networks step in.

• 📊 GSMA's 2026 State of 5G report says coverage alone is no longer enough. Capability and density are what matter now.

• 💰 We joined Dabba Network for a Space on building connectivity infrastructure in India, a demand-first model that's distributed by design.

Time to break it down. 👇

📡 The Relay

This Wednesday, we sat down with Omar Henry (MaknBank) and DePIN Nomad to talk connectivity infrastructure. We discussed where it's working, where it's breaking, and where distributed networks fit in.

The panel paid homage to the genuinely impressive feat of bringing billions of people online. But today, centralized infrastructure is hitting limits that capital alone can't solve. As DePIN Nomad put it: "The [cell] tower itself costs like $250,000. Outfitting it can be up to an extra $500,000. They have to pay for a land lease... and then it takes $20,000 or $30,000 just to maintain the infrastructure after it's already there."

And with population density increasing, resulting in more load on these towers, problems are starting to arise.

Nomad framed the opportunity surrounding shoddy connections positively. Speaking about Helium in particular, "You just have to make back $250... You don't have to make back $750,000. That space in between those two poles, that's where DePIN lives."

Omar, calling in from the road while deploying hotspots across the South, proved the point in real time when his own connection cut out mid-panel. The connection is still spotty in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2026. 

He’s working hard to change that.

Later on Wednesday afternoon, we continued the conversation with Dabba Network, which is building a connectivity network across India by aggregating local cable operators (LCOs) and deploying hotspots where demand already exists.

More on that here.

Don’t forget to tune in on Wednesdays for live broadcasts.

Now let’s dial it up. 📻

📶 When the Crowd Shows Up

In New Orleans at Mardi Gras, deployers Josh Heller and David Key of LongFi built out Helium-powered Wi-Fi across the French Quarter ahead of Carnival. On a normal Tuesday, that network sees about 22,000 unique subscribers. But on Fat Tuesday, it saw 143,000, a 550% surge. 

David Key: "Historically during Mardi Gras, you just can't connect. Calls fail. Texts stall. Data doesn't load. This year, people are already seeing something different."

Now, that's a major metro with a massive deployer buildout. But what happens in the middle of nowhere with just 13 hotspots?

Down at the Okeechobee Music Festival in rural Florida, Ace Tomato runs 13 permanent Helium hotspots. They’re there year-round, not just for the event. The Monday before the festival saw 197 unique subscribers. By Saturday, it hit 6,620. That’s over a 33x increase in traffic. ~2 TB transferred throughout the event, with a peak of ~600GB in one day. All offloaded traffic.

Urban or rural, the result is the same. When the crowd shows up, distributed infrastructure handles it without a $425K tower build. Without a permitting fight. 

🔊 Signal Boost

A few more stories reinforcing this week's theme:

📊 The 5G Gap. GSMA's 2026 State of 5G report confirms what deployers already know. Coverage alone isn't enough. Between markets that build dense, capable networks and those that just paint the map green, the two perform quite differently. The industry is already pivoting to 6G messaging before 5G has delivered on its promises, and if the biggest players in telecom admit the playbook is incomplete, that's your opening.

📈 Helium Q4 by the Numbers. Messari's State of Helium Q4 2025 report shows the macro picture: 4,388 TB of carrier data offloaded in Q4 (up 60.7%), daily active users peaked above 2M for the first time, and annualized revenue hit $11M. 120,000+ access points now serve up to 3 million users daily. 

Can you hear them now? 🤙

👋 Signing Off

The crowd always shows up. The question is whether the infrastructure can handle it. Distributed networks can, and for a fraction of the cost and with a lot less headache.

Share this with someone who needs to see it. Catch The Relay live on X. Follow Matt and Will for updates throughout the week.

We'll catch you next Friday! ✌️