According to CoinDesk, Telefónica, one of the largest telecommunication services providers, is partnering with Nova Labs to roll out mobile hotspots in Mexico City and Oaxaca. The hotspots will be built atop the Helium blockchain, allowing Telefónica customers to tap into Helium's mobile hotspots with the aim of improving mobile coverage using data sharing.
Telefónica, a publicly traded telecom giant with a market cap of over $20 billion, has 383 million customers and operates in Europe and Latin America. José Juan Haro, chief wholesale and public affairs officer at Telefónica, said that the program in Mexico is crucial for evaluating the performance, customer satisfaction, and associated costs of this solution. Helium's native HNT token has seen a 5.71% increase over the past 24 hours, although the rise occurred before the news was released.
In 2021, Helium partnered with internet giant Dish to build out its 5G network, which now has nearly one million hotspots across 65,000 cities and 170 countries. The partnership with Telefónica will enable offloading of mobile data to the Helium Mobile Network, potentially improving network coverage for customers.