如果没有高昂的转换成本，电信看起来很容易受到 DeWi 的影响

此前，高昂的转换成本和长期合同使电信公司无法与之竞争。 EV3 的 Mahesh Ramakrishnan 表示，当今市场结构的关键变化使得挑战者能够通过独特的众包供应来挑战他们。

High switching costs and long-term contracts have made it nearly impossible for any company to compete with big telecoms. But key changes in the market structure are allowing challengers to enter the fray with unique crowdsourced supply.

高昂的转换成本和长期合同使得任何公司几乎不可能与大型电信公司竞争。但市场结构的关键变化使得挑战者能够通过独特的众包供应进入竞争。

As big telcos grapple with a debt burden that has been supercharged by COVID, the prospect of at-scale 5G this decade is becoming more of a meme than an inevitability. While it’s likely a shock to customers who already see a 5G icon on their phones and assume they have full service, the 5G buildout is in its nascency.

随着大型电信公司努力应对因新冠疫情而加重的债务负担，本十年大规模 5G 的前景正变得更像是一种迷因，而非必然。虽然对于已经在手机上看到 5G 图标并认为自己拥有全套服务的客户来说，这可能会感到震惊，但 5G 建设仍处于起步阶段。

This op-ed is part of CoinDesk's new DePIN Vertical, covering the emerging industry of decentralized physical infrastructure.

这篇专栏文章是 CoinDesk 新的 DePIN Vertical 的一部分，涵盖了去中心化物理基础设施的新兴行业。

It will take another $250 billion-plus for telcos to build 5G themselves, a prospect that is causing little excitement in corporate boardrooms given the dearth of use cases today that require it. As a result, mobile network infrastructure providers are suffering. Ericsson shocked financial analysts this past quarter when it reported sales down almost 20% from the year before. The capital intensity and coordination complexity of building a telecom network just isn’t worth the effort to a centralized company.

电信公司还需要花费超过 2500 亿美元来自行建设 5G，鉴于目前需要 5G 的用例的缺乏，这一前景并没有引起企业董事会的兴奋。结果，移动网络基础设施提供商陷入困境。爱立信上个季度的销售额比去年同期下降了近 20%，令财务分析师感到震惊。建设电信网络的资本密集度和协调复杂性对于中心化公司来说是不值得的。

But the rate of technological progress isn’t slowing down: Skyrocketing demands for cloud compute will require an exponentially increasing supply of bandwidth. Where will this step function improvement come from?

但技术进步的速度并没有放缓：云计算需求的飙升将需要呈指数级增长的带宽供应。这一步的功能提升从何而来？

Decentralized Wireless (DeWi) networks offer an efficient way of bridging the two outcomes by outsourcing the work required to build 5G networks. The secret ingredient in DeWi is community-driven collaboration: Any person can deploy a device that provides others with bandwidth and be sure they will be paid for the service provision. By incentivizing people to monetize their internet connections, DeWi networks turn their communities into their supply chain.

分散式无线 (DeWi) ​​网络通过外包构建 5G 网络所需的工作，提供了一种有效的方式来连接这两种结果。 DeWi 的秘诀是社区驱动的协作：任何人都可以部署为其他人提供带宽的设备，并确保他们会因提供服务而获得报酬。通过激励人们将互联网连接货币化，DeWi 网络将他们的社区转变为供应链。

Key to DeWi’s success is the commoditization of telecom hardware: While complex towers and boxes used to do the heavy lifting, now software does all the work. Wi-Fi offload has emerged as a key component supercharging 5G, as the majority of mobile use occurs indoors.

DeWi 成功的关键是电信硬件的商品化：过去复杂的塔楼和盒子负责繁重的工作，但现在软件可以完成所有工作。由于大多数移动使用都发生在室内，Wi-Fi 卸载已成为 5G 增压的关键组件。

While still nascent, this model of building telecom networks has seen promising developments. DePIN networks like Helium have created meaningful supply side footprints, supporting thousands of hotspots. By combining their footprint of hotspots with T-Mobile’s nationwide cellular network, Helium launched Helium Mobile to sell cheap phone plans directly to customers. The experiment is still early, with ~100,000 subscribers and 10,000 suppliers on the network, and many are skeptical it may ever work as free phones and two-year exclusive contracts present meaningful switching costs.

尽管这种电信网络建设模式仍处于萌芽阶段，但已经取得了有希望的发展。 Helium 等 DePIN 网络已经创造了有意义的供应方足迹，支持数千个热点。通过将其热点覆盖范围与 T-Mobile 的全国蜂窝网络相结合，Helium 推出了 Helium Mobile，直接向客户销售廉价电话套餐。该实验还处于早期阶段，网络上约有 100,000 名用户和 10,000 家供应商，许多人怀疑它能否发挥作用，因为免费电话和两年独家合同会带来相当大的转换成本。

While demand has proved far slower to emerge than investors expected, the skeptical view ignores a changing context that is rapidly reducing the barriers to entry.

尽管事实证明需求的出现速度远慢于投资者的预期，但持怀疑态度的观点忽视了正在迅速降低进入壁垒的不断变化的环境。

For decades, big telecom companies have kept customers locked into long-term contracts and made it difficult to switch providers. But that's changing. The physical SIM card, once a key part of this strategy, is becoming obsolete. Apple’s new iPhone 14 supports multiple eSIMs, which are digital versions of SIM cards, meaning one can now switch carriers with a few taps on the phone instead of visiting a store.

几十年来，大型电信公司一直将客户锁定在长期合同中，使得更换提供商变得困难。但这种情况正在改变。物理 SIM 卡曾经是这一战略的关键部分，但现在已经过时了。苹果的新款 iPhone 14 支持多个 eSIM，这是 SIM 卡的数字版本，这意味着用户现在只需在手机上轻按几下即可切换运营商，而无需前往商店。

This shift drastically reduces switching costs and levels the playing field, allowing smaller companies to compete with the telecom giants. What used to take days to switch providers now only takes minutes. This challenge has been reinforced by regulators, who aim to limit the ability of telcos to lock customers into exclusive contracts.

这种转变极大地降低了转换成本并创造了公平的竞争环境，使小公司能够与电信巨头竞争。过去需要几天时间才能更换提供商，现在只需几分钟。监管机构加剧了这一挑战，监管机构旨在限制电信公司将客户锁定在独家合同中的能力。

The last vestige of the high switching cost model, customer lock-in, is under attack by the FCC today. The FCC Chair is advocating for a policy that would stop carriers from blocking phones from using other eSIMs after six months. This change means that after six months, anybody can switch carriers easily without any restrictions, regardless of the original terms and price promotions associated with the contract.

高转换成本模式的最后残余——客户锁定——今天正受到美国联邦通信委员会(FCC)的攻击。 FCC 主席正在倡导一项政策，阻止运营商在六个月后阻止手机使用其他 eSIM 卡。这一变化意味着六个月后，任何人都可以轻松地更换运营商，不受任何限制，无论与合同相关的原始条款和价格促销如何。

This policy could shake up the telecom industry, ending the profitable strategy of bundling free phones with long-term contracts. As a result, the industry should expect intense price competition since carriers can no longer rely on package deals to keep customers and will have to compete on selling commoditized bandwidth.

这项政策可能会震动电信行业，结束将免费电话与长期合同捆绑在一起的盈利策略。因此，该行业预计会出现激烈的价格竞争，因为运营商不能再依靠套餐交易来留住客户，而必须在销售商品化带宽方面进行竞争。

Read more: Max Thake - DePIN: It's Time for Crypto to Get Real

阅读更多：Max Thake - DePIN：是时候让加密货币变得真实了

The battle for per-unit bandwidth is one that DeWi has an unfair advantage in: The community deployment model adopted by protocols like Helium will always cost less than the equivalent centralized incumbent, at any scale. The three biggest cost buckets suffered by incumbent carriers are: spectrum costs, capital expenditures on hardware, and tower maintenance fees.

在单位带宽争夺战中，DeWi 具有不公平的优势：无论规模如何，Helium 等协议采用的社区部署模型的成本始终低于同等的集中式现有部署模型。现有运营商面临的三大成本是：频谱成本、硬件资本支出和塔维护费用。

The secret sauce of DeWi is outsourcing all three of these costs to people willing to host internet-providing routers themselves, obviating the need to spend money on real estate and towers. By paying them in tokens, DeWi networks allow community members to participate in the upside and incentivizes viral growth.

DeWi 的秘密武器是将所有这三项成本外包给愿意自己托管提供互联网的路由器的人，从而无需在房地产和塔上花钱。通过向他们支付代币，DeWi 网络允许社区成员参与上涨并激励病毒式增长。

While companies like Helium compete on telco turf of contracted

虽然像 Helium 这样的公司在合同电信领域竞争