This is the first in a series of posts detailing how to get started using the Helium IoT LoRaWAN network. Let’s start by covering the main reasons why you would want to pick the Helium IoT network.
Coverage
The Helium IoT Network is the largest LoRaWAN network in the world, providing excellent coverage with approximately 400,000 active hotspots(gateways) deployed globally. This network stands out in terms of density and expanse, ensuring that your devices have optimal coverage wherever you are. You can view the coverage here.
Incentive
One of the reasons for this extensive coverage is the incentivization for people to host hotspots. By hosting hotspots, individuals are rewarded with the Helium IoT token. This encourages the expansion of coverage into areas that may not be already covered.
Cost
In addition to its impressive coverage, the Helium IoT Network offers extremely low costs for sending LoRaWAN packets. Sending a single SF10 uplink costs just $0.00001. You can use this handy calculator to estimate daily/monthly/yearly cost of N devices.
If you’re interested in learning more about Helium in general, then check out helium.com. If you want to learn more about how the Helium IoT network works, visit docs.helium.com.
How to start using?
To start utilizing the network, you have two options.
You can choose from a list of LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS) providers
In the next post, I will show you how to host your own LNS from scratch on Vultr.