Deploying a HM Indoor unit at a solid foot traffic/dwell time business such as a barber shop is probably the best ROI you can get in DePIN right now.
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I typed up a “wwyd” covering this question. It’s not even 2 months old and I’d tweak it a little based on new things I’ve learned + the Helium PoC halving on August 1st (yes, tomorrow) but it’s a good overview.
tl;dr: Place both, see which do better (varies by location). Several amazing locations, or 10+ OK ones? Read up on brownfield and multiple Passpoint-based projects to split traffic between APs.
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I don't know I love helium before but if you have a location that making data why are your HIPS rules hit the little guy in the country.. if XNET is better and wants a secured network with speed and get rewarded sign me up…
From my many Moken meetings I've attended I know Maknbank runs both and he always talks about his experience with Xnet. Who makes more? It really depends on the traffic. Helium does have both ATT & TMobile ( I can attest to that) and Xnet only has ATT as their main carrier. But one thing that Maknbank says time and time again is that Xnet's payouts are much greater. Me personally I have 4 deployments in businesses with Helium hardware, but want to start deploying Xnet soon (I already have the hardware just need the host). I will say this for sure DO NOT deploy both in one location, one will suffer over the other, unless its a large building or with multiple floors where you can take advantage of the space and capture traffic separately. Just my 2 cents, hope this helps 🤘
@Must_Stash_Crypto hit me up I'm in the point to change equipment to many HIPS on there ecosystem.
@Must_Stash_Crypto I would disagree with not deploying both in one location, at least long enough to get a feel for traffic and earnings potential. But your main point not to leave both is correct unless you’re knowledgeable enough to split traffic between APs.
Oh and FYI I believe that T-Mobile only picks up Helium Mobile indoor APs and not outdoor ones. Act accordingly since they’re a huge carrier!
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@FreeShkreli As you said, unless your knowledgeable about the traffic and AP's, which he clearly is not I wouldnt do both. If he has the funds and time he could definitely play with it. With Helium taking forever to assert carrier offloading, xnet might start earning him rewards weeks before his helium Hotspot is even considered for offloading, but if he is trying to choose one over the other thats a different story. And I wasn't aware that Tmobile doesn't pick up outdoors, thats good to know and a tragedy as well. One of my locations is an outdoor unit at an outdoor flea market that gets so congested at times the reception suffers. Thus why I put one there.
I run both in a commercial location (retail/office). Helium outdoor did well with POC and some data provided via Helium mobile. Put up Xnet outdoor and it did great (ATT is huge in my area) 5000 Xnet per month. That all changed when Helium added ATT data offload. I saw a huge spike Helium data and I was pretty fired up until I got my Xnet rewards for the same period and rewards were down to 500 Xnet. While I can’t get confirmation from XNET but I believe the Helium unit is sucking up all ATT data offload and crushing the XNET unit and effectively canceling it out. It is my understanding the XNET’s only souce of revenue is the ATT data offload. Again, this only my opinion based on N=1 observation. It has been three months and XNET rewards have not recovered. The XNET hotspot has had 100% uptime over this time period and I think it has very slightly better install.
@Wagonmeister thanks for sharing your experience, it sounds a lot like mine. A few more variables worth mentioning:
XNET has some MVNOs but yep just one MNO, AT&T.
They just launched Wi-Fi 7 gear which is a big step yo from Wi-Fi 6 QOS and is a differentiating factor vs Helium for now. Not sure if Hellum is onboarding Wi-Fi 7 as brownfield yet but their current branded APs are both 6.
According to XNET’s monthly x.com space yesterday they got approval from AT&T to manage their own phone book meeting they control approval for APs and don't have to wait on AT&T so that's an advantage over helium.
I can't understate how big of a deal it is for them not to have another MNO like helium does so that's worth mentioning twice… I wish it were easier to split traffic but then again it's not a secret on how to do it, just a hassle and some trial and error at worst
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@FreeShkreli I hate typing on a phone not even going to bother to fix the typos above
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I know JD touched on it during one of his Spaces. It is a newer project so I would hope the rewards would akin to the early days of Helium. I am looking into it too. I wonder, can you deploy both a Helium and XNET in the same location? Might be wise to hedge your bets and use both. Maybe TMO would choose Helium to offload, and ATnT would use XNET.
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I'm only invested in Helium, and it's been profitable. I'm not familiar with XNET.
@elfotoguy+8cc59274 I feel like the XNET team hypes up a lot of stuff that they “should” “could” do but nothing really happens lol. While Helium Hypes a lot of things and then 50% of it happens Hahah
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Very good question… I’m very curious to see what the community thinks. I don’t know much about how XNET works but I feel I’d pick Helium here.
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@DepinMasterMind hopefully we get more input on the question. Just sorta tired of the continuous technical issue and rebooting WiFi hotspots with Helium.
@coldtrane06 Yeah that makes sense, have you considered Wayru?
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@DepinMasterMind never really gave it a thought. Gonna do my due diligence on it. I’ve seen some YouTube videos on it in the past though. Just thought Helium was the top dog
I’m putting together a fleet based on friends who own businesses. I’ve already set up one Helium indoor hotspot at a local barbershop. Which of these projects is profitable? Why or why not? Any alternative choices?
Helium Wifi
XNET
A barbershop? WOW that’s a power move