The first roaming partnership of 2022 is here with X-TELIA. Hailing from Quebec, X-TELIA joins the growing list of roaming partnerships in the Helium ecosystem 🇨🇦. Thanks to the Helium blockchain, this latest roaming integration will allow LoRaWAN-compatible devices already supported by X-TELIA to seamlessly utilize coverage provided by the Helium Network across Canada, the United States, and the rest of the world.

X-TELIA is a Canadian IoT network leader offering end-to-end IoT solutions designed to support new applications that make cities smarter, industry operations more efficient, and citizens safer. Through this roaming partnership, X-TELIA’s customers are now offered extended connectivity and the opportunity to expand into new markets globally, while the Helium Network will benefit from accelerated usage and an increased presence in Canada.

X-TELIA currently supports use cases across a wide variety of verticals, from tracking and detecting forest fires to snow removal, flood warnings, reading water meters, measuring the temperature at the bottom of the ocean, and even preventing heatstroke in cows. AIoT Canada, Videotron Business, and Tektelic Communications are just a few of the partners and clients X-TELIA already works with.

The Helium Network has experienced unprecedented growth across the globe, with over 516K Hotspots in 39K+ cities and 163 countries. With its growth, the Network now sees a large amount of non-Helium device traffic that ends up getting dropped.

By entering into roaming partnerships with other wireless networks, Helium can route that traffic to these roaming partners, dramatically increasing usage for Helium and providing global coverage for partners. As there is more emphasis placed on usage versus providing coverage for HNT rewards over time, roaming with partners such as X-TELIA will be important drivers of data transfer for Hotspot owners.

Helium is not the only beneficiary of these roaming agreements; IoT network operators who roam with Helium immediately benefit from:

• Helium Network’s rapidly-expanding global coverage
• Existing LoRaWAN infrastructure, allowing network operators to see immediate ROI without needing to purchase and deploy additional gateways
• Paying only based on usage (data transfer); no costly contracts or subscriptions
• The ability to create redundancy in existing coverage areas

Read more about the benefits of roaming with Helium here.