With data at a premium for consumers in most situations involving its purchase and spectrum of all sorts currently under hot debate worldwide, it’s no surprise that there are startups out there that have been buying up spectrum for the specific purpose of renting it out. On a similar note, startup BandwidthX, around since 2011, is in the business of selling off extra bandwidth and capacity on Wi-Fi networks to mobile providers. They act as a sort of middleman, managing deals, doling out authorization tickets and, through the magic of their Bxmarket system, calculating the value of excess Wi-Fi floating around by the minute and using that data to decide on a price.
Speaking at a cable industry trade show, Pertti Visuri, founder of the somewhat enigmatic company, said that they are “ahead of plan” and experiencing “millions” of connections per day from various devices, though he refused to name any customers, saying only that their worldwide customers included a number of MNVOs in the U.S. With millions of devices and networks out there tailored to the sort of seamless connection switching that BandwidthX builds their business on, it’s little surprise to see them doing well. With many wireless carriers scrambling to build out their networks to meet demand while also beginning to build 5G, and oodles of unlicensed spectrum floating around, the current market climate is quite conducive to a business like BandwidthX. Their technology essentially works by letting Wi-Fi providers and mobile providers say what they want to pay or get paid, then matching them up automatically when those values match up.
BandwidthX’s systems are catered to Android devices, which contain software that allow them to jump between connections instantly, known as “offloading”, though Visuri did say that the company is hard at work making things easier for other OS platforms, particularly iOS. As they did not name their customer list in any capacity, it’s impossible to say who in what areas may soon be seeing better signal on their iOS devices. While BandwithX isn’t a name that many outside of the industry will know, the money will keep rolling in as long as they remain the unsung heroes of data rush hours the world over.