[44net] Helium network

While the abuse concerns should be addressed off list, I think there may be benefit from some basic discussion about this network. I'd be willing to bet most are unaware of this network, that it mostly uses LoRA modulation to build a decentralized network for slower speed data applications. I feel there is a good amount of overlap to what we do in ham radio and there could be things learned from it. I'd be interested in knowing who is using the helium network (package delivery folks I'd assume, among others) and what light weight protocols and data they use. A few years back someone at a DCC meeting did suggest the concept of just such a network for the internet of things. And there have been a few papers on LoRA. I'm not interested in the crypto aspect of the network nor does that fit the discussion here. But if the hardware entry cost was lower or there was a way to build your own gateway I'd probably be doing that. Pity there isn't enough of density of interested hams locally to do what they are doing. So is there anyone else doing things with LoRa chipset enabled hardware with dialup speed applications in or out of ham radio.?