🪙Pollen Economics
Last updated
Last updated
Pollen Mobile Hybrid Network Operator™ (“MHNO”): The recent history of the $300+ billion US wireless carrier market is largely a story of consolidation, not competition-driven innovation. By (1) focusing RAN deployments in areas where the incumbent MNOs currently lack coverage, (2) combining with the RAN deployed for Fixed Wireless and Public / Private networks, and (3) structuring commercial agreements with incumbent Mobile Network Operators (“MNOs”) to utilize their RAN, Pollen will be able to launch highly differentiated, premium mobile services.
Fixed Wireless Access / Wireless Internet Service: A rapidly growing market that’s expected to reach $25 billion in revenue by 2025, Pollen will make it easy and affordable for anybody to deploy wireless internet access. Potential markets include anywhere running fiber is cost-prohibitive, areas where fixed broadband is highly priced, and price-sensitive markets. Pollen currently only offers CBRS-based solutions, but additional bands will be supported in the future. Once deployed, Pollen installations utilizing CBRS (and other mobility bands) will also be able to support mobility services (e.g., Pollen MHNO, Neutral Host).
Public / Private Hybrid Networks: Another rapidly growing market that’s expected to reach $40+ billion in revenue by 2030, Pollen is being designed to give anybody - from individuals, to SMBs, to the largest enterprises - the unique ability to affordably deploy private networks at any scale, without any in-house technical expertise. Pollen didn’t invent private networks, but Pollen is expected to be the first private networking solution that allows deployers to securely expose a private network to public traffic and thereby monetize a network that otherwise would be just a cost center.
Neutral Host: Charging MNOs and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (“MVNOs”) to utilize neutral RAN instead of deploying the capital expenditures themselves.
For years this has proven to be a mirage for deployers of private networks and CBRS small cells due to a host of challenges, including:
FCC-imposed constraints, including rules that allow owners of licensed spectrum to broadcast at 300x to 600x the effective power output of operators utilizing CBRS
Technical considerations, including the fact that User Equipment / mobile phones do not make radio handoff / switching decisions independent of instructions from the Mobile Core due to practical considerations (e.g., battery preservation)
Concerns from MNOs and MVNOs about the security of utilizing third-party RAN
Interoperability challenges in utilizing radios and Mobile Cores from disparate suppliers
The cost and complexity of integrating Mobile Cores
Commercial considerations, primarily legacy MNOs reluctance to cede control over their RAN
The lack of a compelling business case to proactively utilize third-party RAN
The challenge of enforcing minimum Quality of Service guarantees / Service Level Agreements on third-party RAN
We believe that the key breakthrough to providing a compelling Neutral Host business case to legacy MNOs and MVNOs is a combination of aggregating the Pollen RAN deployed in the Monetization Models above, plus incentivizing RAN deployments in geographies where:
MNOs don’t currently provide adequate coverage, and
Sufficient density has been achieved to provide seamless Pollen-native coverage (i.e., where (i) UE connections to Pollen RAN can compete with licensed spectrum, and (ii) seamless handoffs can occur) and thereby provide a competitive alternative to legacy MNO RAN
