It’s been a while since I wrote a DD on World Mobile Token (WMT) but so much has happened that I think it’s worth updating my previous post with the latest developments. I’ll be using a fair bit of info from my one of my previous posts as I want to make sure everything is covered.
The TLDR of WMT is that they’re a Telecommunications company first and foremost. What separates them from the other 1000 Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) is that they are combining Cardano’s blockchain technology as well as the Sharing Economy business model (think Uber and Airbnb). Their mission is to connect the unconnected and finally bridge the digital divide the separates the haves from the have-nots. The poor get poorer because they don’t have the same privileges that the wealthy do. Internet access will level the playing field as things we take for granted such as education, healthcare and financial services is just a click away. Let that sink in for a bit before you read on. This is an incredibly important project that, if they succeed, will immediately be beneficial to any other crypto project you’re invested in as the other half of the global population will finally have access to crypto.
1. Relevant Global Telecommunications Industry statistics
2. Relevant Stats on Africa
3. Competitor Stats in Comparison
4. Info on the World Mobile team
5. Why the Sharing Economy is key
6. Partnerships
7. Physical Assets
8. Other bits and bobs
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Global Telecoms Industry stats
• 1000 Mobile Network Operators (MNO) providing internet access to 52% of the world.
• $2.6 trillion global telecommunications industry
• 3.7B people (48%) without internet access
• Therefore circa $2.6 trillion left on the table (or under a mattress)
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Africa stats
• Average age 19.7 years old
• 1.2B people in Africa
• 54% have mobile phones
• 78% have ZERO internet access
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Market Cap of World Mobile VS other Mobile Network Operators
• World Mobile USD$70 million
• Vodafone USD$50 BILLION
• Singtel/Optus USD$40B
• Telstra USD$31B
Take this comparison with a grain of salt as it’s hard to compare MC of traditional stocks vs crypto. But still, the upside is apparent.
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Team Info – https://worldmobile.io/story
Micky Watkins, CEO:
• 20 years in Telecoms
• Co-founded Yallo, the first VOIP platform of its kind
• 15 years experience using off the shelf equipment to connect rural areas
James Tagg, Chief Architect:
• Inventor of touch screens found on Mobile Phones
• Made the first ever VOIP call on a mobile phone
Steve James, Chief Marketing Officer:
• Former Vodafone Head of Marketing
• Former O2 Head of Pay & Go
• Former Tesco Mobile Head of Brand & Advertising
Andrew Bartley, Advisor:
• Former Chief Investment Officer for the International Finance Corporation (sister company to the World Bank)
Renee Poisson, Advisor:
• Former Managing Director of JP Morgan
• Also served as Chairman of JP Morgan Pension Fund
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Sharing economy
I didn’t quite understand this term until someone pointed out other examples such as Uber and AirBnB, who both use the Sharing Economy business model. With this in mind, it makes sense how World Mobile will be able to keep costs low (approximately 12 times cheaper than legacy MNOs) when other MNOs have failed to do the same. Because basically, the infrastructure is built and maintained by the customer. Other MNOs have to invest capital into costly towers, and then have their tiny profit margins eaten into when something goes wrong and they need to pay an expensive engineer to drive a few days through unpaved terrain, pay for food and accommodation. The World Mobile customer, who earns revenue from their Air Node, takes care of all of this, including making sure no one steals, vandalises or damages the equipment.
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Confirmed Partnerships
Cardano – Cardano is a top 5 coin in terms of Market Cap size (not counting stablecoings) but the what sets them apart from the other Layer 1s is that their blockchain is peer reviewed (90+ papers) and mathematically proven to work. Charles Hoskinson, Founder of Cardano, has been heavily criticised for how long it has taken to get Cardano to where it is today when other Blockchains have passed them by (albeit with expensive consequences, see Terra Luna). But his reasoning is akin to building an Airplane. If people are going to put their lives/livelihoods into his creation, he is going to make sure there are no issues with it. The fact that a company like Cardano/IOHK have not only partnered with World Mobile, but also have a 10% equity stake in World Mobile (IOHK have no stake in any other Cardano Project) speaks volumes about how critical World Mobile’s success will be to their own mission in Banking the Unbanked, which you can’t do until you Connect the Unconnected. In the crypto world, Cardano’s name is comparable to Google, Amazon or Tesla.
Here’s some link for easy reference if you wanted to read further.
Fulham FC – Fulham won the 2022 Champions League and will therefore be promoted to the English Premier League next season. This is a 3 year partnership. This is NOT a sponsorship deal where World Mobile simply paid huge sums of money to have their logo on the front of Fulham jerseys. The partnership runs deeper. How? Good question, I never asked. Someone find out please!
EPSON – That’s right. The $6.6 billion Printer company partnered with WM in November 2021 to support education and bring new opportunities to the unconnected schools in Africa, where WM provided internet connectivity and EPSON supplied the printers and projectors. Not exactly a price catalyst but a solid boost in credibility nonetheless.
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Unconfirmed Partnerships
Starlink, Microsoft and Google – Starlink has been heavily “hinted at” by the founders (several pics of founders visiting SpaceX invite-only restricted areas). My guess is a partnership is there so that Starlink can act as a backhaul option but has yet to be formally announced due to legal reasons. However, all three have been named in their “Partnerships, Collaborations, Vendor & Supply Chain Team” list https://worldmobile.io/blog/post/deployment-diary/
Let’s pause for a moment and imagine Elon tweeting a pic of
himself wearing a Fulham FC Jersey with the WM logo on full display.
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Physical Assets
This is what separates World Mobile Token from every other crypto project. Ok I take that back. Everything I wrote above separates WMT from everything. But the physical, tangible assets that World Mobile have deployed on the ground (and in the air) is clear proof to skeptics that WMT is not magic internet money like some see crypto to be. They have a blimp for f*cks sake! A BLIMP! It’s technically an Aerostat, but whatever you want to call it, it’s a big-ass balloon 300 metres up in the sky with WORLD MOBILE printed on the side, holding hundreds of kilograms worth of equipment that will provide internet access to everyone underneath within a 70km radius. There are several benefits of having (unmanned) Aerostats instead of Cell-phone towers but cost is a huge factor. Just two of these bad boys and Zanzibar will be covered (first one goes up end of July 2022), and around 100 of them will cover unconnected areas of Tanzania.
Other assets include:
• Air Nodes – imagine a pole with a couple of solar powered panels, a light on top, a couple of batteries at the bottom, and a big ass modem/router in the middle as one example (there will be many iterations). Air Nodes will provide high speed internet to everyone within a 100m – 200m radius, as well as electricity thanks to the solar power panels and batteries. Click here to see what happened to this tiny fishing village that previously had no electricity, light, or internet: https://youtu.be/hYlLA9emiaw. Under the Sharing Economy business model, Air Nodes will be owned and operated by the local community. My basic understanding is that, if I lived in the middle of nowhere, with no electricity and internet, we would simply download the hardware (off the shelf) specs off World Mobile website, followed the instructions provided on putting everything together and setting it up, I would eventually be connected to the internet and anyone around me would also be able to connect using my Air Node (after they paid for a pre-paid data pack from the nearest shop using local fiat). Once they connected to my Air Node, I would earn revenue depending on how many people were connected. And at twice the speeds of competitors as well as half the price, I can’t imagine people not connecting if given the option.
• Earth Nodes – there will be a maximum of 1000 of these. Most of them have been reserved but the final 100 or so are being auctioned off. About 15 have already been sold at the time of writing. First year ROI is set to be at least 50% / 50,000 WMT from inflation rewards alone. The bigger draw to own and operate an earth node is that Earth Node Operators (ENOs) will earn a percentage of revenue from users/subcribers. An Earth Node is basically a computer that validates transactions on the block chain. That’s crypto speak for an automated Finance / Book-keeping team processing the paperwork (possibly a terrible analogy but I’m dumbing it down as much as I can because… well, I’m dumb myself and that’s how I understand it). The way ENOs get paid is also what makes it easy for me to say WMT is not a Ponzi/Pyramid scheme. With a lot of sh*tcoins, investors make money when other investors buy in after them. But with WMT the process is like this:
1. Local internet user pays cash for data card and use WM internet service
2. Cash goes into WM treasury
3. WM Treasury uses the cash to buy WMT on market / exchanges
4. WM distributes WM Token to ENOs
5. Profit
This process drives the price up organically, not from investors investing. But from people purchasing internet data packages. Of course, price will also be driven up by investors but it’s not necessary like other crypto projects.
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Other bits and bobs
It’s getting late and I’m tired so I can’t think remember what I missed that I wanted to put here. Maybe someone will mention it in the comments or maybe I’ll come back at a later date to post an update.