Helium Subscribers Furious as DePIN Giant Backs Out of Early Adopter Price Plan

Helium Mobile has found itself in hot water after the Solana DePIN heavyweight announced it would be discontinuing its early adopter pricing plan.

Subscribers have expressed disappointment towards the firm, which promised early supporters that they would be able to enjoy promotional pricing “forever”.

Meanwhile, Helium’s global expansion continues to gain momentum, with over 1,000 hotspots deployed across Latin America.

Helium Makes Unpopular Changes to Mobile Plan Pricing

On January 12, Helium announced upcoming changes to its early-access mobile plans, with the original $5p/m and $20p/m plans being migrated to Helium’s $15p/m Air plan. To soften the blow, subscribers to the $5 plan have been gifted $10 worth of mobile credit.

Helium’s popular free mobile plan, Zero, is expected to stay at $0p/m as a service. However, Helium has acknowledged that obligatory taxes and fees enforced by governments and payment partners will be passed on to subscribers. At press time, Helium has not indicated how much Zero plan subscribers can expect to pay to cover these costs.

Early Subscribers Upset over “Betrayal”

While mobile internet providers are known to change their pricing, Helium’s shift away from the $5 plan has struck a nerve with subscribers. 

Early adopters have expressed their frustration over the changes, crying foul on Helium’s original promise that “participating users will receive the Unlimited Plan Beta promo price for as long as they remain a Helium Mobile subscriber”.

Disgruntled subscribers are claiming that Helium has since deleted mentions of the “forever” rate from the internet. 

Criticisms of Helium’s shift away from the $5 plan range from claims that the DePIN network has “sold out” and gone the way of traditional telcos to an “insult to your most loyal customer base”.

When asked why the firm is moving away from the early adopter plans, Helium Mobile Marketing & Communications Leader Aarti Utwani informed SolanaFloor that Helium understood why the retirement of the $5 plan "may feel disappointing" for subscribers.

"As our network, costs, and services have grown, we've had to make changes to ensure Helium Mobile remains sustainable long-term... This change was made fully in line with our terms and conditions, which have always reserved our right to change plan pricing or discounts as our offerings evolve." 

"We understand why the recent announcement about the retirement of the $5 plan may feel disappointing. Please know that this decision wasn't made lightly, but to further our mission of providing affordable mobile service to as many as possible. After 2+ years of super low prices, we hope subscribers have enjoyed our service and will migrate to one of our competitive plans." - Aarti Utwani, Helium Mobile Marketing & Communications Leader

While the introduction of government-mandated taxes and fees is unfortunate for subscribers who joined Helium’s Zero plan, one commentator noted that users would still be unlikely to find a cheaper provider elsewhere.

Network Growth Undaunted as Global Hotspots Crack 123,000 Deployments

While subscribers rage about changes to Helium’s pricing plan, the DePIN giant continues its path towards global coverage. 

After announcing the network’s expansion to Brazil in December 2025, Helium explorer data suggests that ~11 hotspots have surfaced in the nation, bringing the total number of Latin American deployments over 1,000, including Puerto Rico.

The Helium Mobile network now supports over 1.7M daily users, transmitting over 71.1 TBs of data through its carrier offload program.

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