One of the co-founders of the music-streaming website Napster is launching a long-range Wi-Fi network for internet of things-based services in Europe, in an attempt to break the stranglehold of the traditional telecoms sector. Helium, the Silicon Valley-based company behind the new network, was set up by Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning and former British professional video gamer Amir Haleem in 2013, but only launched its low-power network in Austin, Texas in August last year. It has since expanded to 1,000 cities in North America and launches in Europe this week. Unlike a traditional network operator, Helium, which uses the “LoRaWAN” long range standard, sells individual “hotspots” at a cost of €450 to consumers who agree to put the boxes in their windows. The hotspot owner then takes a cut of any revenue made through the use of the network, and the device also mines Helium’s in-house cryptocurrency. Helium argues it can cover an entire city with between 50 and 100 hotspots. Mr Haleem said that it has sold 9,000 of the hotspots since its launch, serving a range of internet of things technologies including dog trackers and sensors on water coolers. “It seems like a ridiculous idea in the first place but it is growing like crazy,” he said.

 Helium’s “LongFi” network will compete with existing dedicated internet of things networks from companies including SigFox and Vodafone. The start-up has received $51m in funding from Google’s GV, Khosla Partners and Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce, among other funds. Mr Haleem said that traditional telecoms companies have struggled to crack the economics of IoT networks because of the tiny amounts of revenue generated by sensors. He noted that NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese telecoms company, had withdrawn its network in March only a year after launch. Tom Rebbeck, an analyst with Analysys Mason, said that other telecoms companies are winning sizeable IoT deals in niches such as smart metering and alarm systems, where coverage and network quality are key. However the more developer-friendly low-cost approach of LoRa could give rise to new use cases that turn LoRa players like Helium and The Things Network into real challengers. Mr Haleem was more confident and said the telecoms sector could be “blown up” in the same way the taxi sector was disrupted by Uber. Helium hotspots have to be plugged into a broadband connection in a customer’s home, however. Helium has trialled its network in the US with a number of companies including Nestlé, which has tested it for use in monitoring when water coolers in offices need to be replaced. A trial with scooter company Lime to trace lost equipment is no longer active, however. Mr Haleem said Helium does not take a cut of the revenue that its hotspot owners make from IoT data traffic. It expects to make money from services on top of the network and said much of its value is in owning the Helium cryptocurrency.