SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FreedomFi, the open 5G company, today announced the launch of FreedomFi One, the world's first consumer-deployable cellular base station giving customers with zero knowledge of LTE or 5G technologies the ability to bring up a cellular network -- simply plugging in FreedomFi One into a FreedomFi Gateway.
All configuration and setup is fully automated and happens behind the scenes. FreedomFi customers will be receiving shipments of FreedomFi One starting today.
“An average cost to bring up a small cell site in the US today is $36,000, most of which is the cost of labor to complete the setup and configuration,” said Joey Padden, FreedomFi co-founder and CTO. “Through software automation and innovative open source technologies like Magma, we have cut that cost by two orders of magnitude. The 50,000 small cells we will deliver is more than Verizon currently has in the United States.”
FreedomFi One is an indoor cellular base station, also known as “small cell,” operating in the CBRS spectrum band. It is capable of providing secure and interference free wireless coverage with the range of 2-3x of 5GHz Wi-Fi, downlink speeds of up to 220Mbps and support up to 96 simultaneous cellular device connections.
“The rapid rollout of Helium 5G with ecosystem partners like FreedomFi is proof that an incentive model powered by blockchain is the future of deploying wireless infrastructure at scale,” said Frank Mong, COO, Helium. “We're excited to see consumer-owned 5G cities light up across the US, enabling high bandwidth devices to be supported on the Helium Network for the very first time.”
FreedomFi customers who purchase FreedomFi One small cell will also receive a FreedomFi sim card that can be inserted into any cellular device that supports CBRS band and can use it as their own private cellular network. Through its partnership with Helium blockchain, FreedomFi also aims to reward operators of its small cells with HNT cryptocurrency for offloading mobile data from the macro networks of operators.
FreedomFi was founded by open source software veterans and contributes most of the software code it builds to the open source project Magma, governed by the Linux Foundation. To deliver FreedomFi One, the company partnered with Sercomm - a leading manufacturer of cellular radio equipment - to build 50,000 FreedomFi One base stations.
"FreedomFi is taking a revolutionary, open source-centric approach to democratizing small cell deployments," said Ben Lin, Sercomm CTO. “We are looking forward to partnering with the company for a long time to come.”
FreedomFI plans to build the largest neutral host small cell network in the US, independently operated by owners of real estate assets well-suited for radio deployments. More than 30,000 people in the US have joined the FreedomFi waitlist to purchase a FreedomFi Gateway and a certified small cell to date. The company plans to announce partnerships with more small cell radio manufacturers in the coming months, with the outdoor versions of cellular base stations expected to start shipping in February 2022.
About FreedomFi
FreedomFi is the open 5G company that offers the easiest path toward open source Private LTE or 5G networks. Be it for Fixed Wireless Access, Enterprise Cellular or Mobile Broadband, just plug in any commodity small cell into a FreedomFi Gateway and start managing a private cellular network via a SaaS-hosted portal.
Joe Eckert for FreedomFi
Eckert Communications
Jeckert@eckertcomms.com
