📶World Mobile
World Mobile is a telecom company with a mission to connect the unconnected people of the world. They have a sharing-economy business model and excellent revenue, so we have partnered with them to bring their revenue to our platform in the form of 20% fixed APR vaults for USDC and USDT.

How it Works:
To start earning 20% fixed APR, navigate to Wise's RWA Vaults page, connect your browser wallet, and deposit USDC or USDT. This will take two transactions, one for approval and one for depositing.
Claiming Interest:
Users can claim or compound their interest, and top-up their position at any time by tapping the "view position" button.

Liquidating Principal:
Users can retrieve their principal from the vault by setting a sell order. This switches all new deposits and compounded funds coming into the vault to purchase your sell order first, before sending any more funds to World Mobile. Tap "view position" and select withdraw to set a sell order.
How Safe is the Vault from Attacks?
Our vaults automatically forward deposits to World Mobile to buy nodes, which Wise then owns. This means no principal funds are sitting in the vault to be attacked. Additionally, the nodes are insured against defects and damages (2.5% annual cost paid by Wise). Maintenance, installation, and any hardware upgrades are handled entirely by World Mobile. Wise transfers the revenue received from World Mobile every month back into the vault for users to claim, and users can avoid the (unlikely) possibility of an attacker finding an exploit to steal the incoming revenue by collecting their rewards from the vault on a regular basis.
Can the Vault APR% ever change?
The APR is staying at 20%!

In modern society, internet connectivity has become a need, not a want. We depend on it for everything from our jobs, to transportation, to communication, and many other aspects of our lives. People are willing to pay for internet connectivity as much as they are willing to pay for food and housing.
Our vault assets are predominantly Spark AirNodes (WiFi routers) in Asian emerging markets. Routers are even more reliable than the cell antennas, because every installed router is tied to a subscription. Currently, World Mobile is seeing only a 7% churn in subscriptions, and is growing rapidly from new subscriptions. This revenue model is battle tested, and World Mobile is very entrenched in Asia. Profit margins are extremely healthy, and we can't even find a non-apocalyptic risk model that would impact the 20% APR in the next 5 years (2026-2031).
About World Mobile
World Mobile brings the sharing economy to telecom—like Airbnb for hotels or Uber for taxis—letting anyone own and operate network nodes (AirNodes), earn rewards from real usage, and help build a decentralized global mobile network.
Beyond decentralization, World Mobile pioneers the tech itself: innovative aerostats, stratospheric platforms, and hybrid infrastructure that delivers connectivity up to 8x more cost-efficiently than traditional cell towers or satellite-only solutions—through lower build costs, faster deployment, and minimal overhead costs.
The result: affordable, high-performance access for underserved communities, while empowering people to own part of the future telecom economy.
Even in the USA, there are 30 million people with absent or poor connectivity options.
AirNodes - The Bread and Butter of the Network
World Mobile's AirNodes form a hybrid network combining terrestrial (building-mounted) and aerial/sky (aerostats, stratospheric platforms) elements to deliver connectivity worldwide.
Terrestrial AirNodes—such as Spark (~$66, small Wi-Fi router for homes/small businesses, 150m radius) to Titan (up to ~$100k, high-capacity macro for long-range overwatch on rooftops/tall buildings)—provide fixed wireless access. These ground-based antennas excel in dense urban areas, offering high-speed, high-bandwidth, low-latency performance for thousands of users.
Wise Vaults smartly accumulate these terrestrial nodes using vault funds, as they are the only infrastructure capable of reliably handling city-scale demand—satellites simply can't compete due to physics limitations in populated zones.
For rural or mobile scenarios (travelers, remote gaps), World Mobile deploys aerial solutions like tethered aerostats (sky hubs for wide rural coverage) and emerging stratospheric platforms—creating a truly complementary, layered network that outperforms legacy or satellite-only approaches.

A Technological Breakthrough
World Mobile's stratospheric project, known as World Mobile Stratospheric (WMS), involves hydrogen-powered fixed-wing aircraft designed to deliver direct-to-handset 5G connectivity from altitudes of up to 20,000 meters. These aircraft feature phased-array antennas capable of covering 15,000 km² per unit with zero carbon emissions during flight.
Introductory Blog Post: Detailed announcement of the project's launch in partnership with Protelindo, covering technical specs like the 3-meter 5G antenna, 100 Gbps throughput, and hydrogen propulsion system.
Deep Dive Interview: Discussion with Gregory Gottlieb on the rationale for stratospheric connectivity, emphasizing direct-to-handset 5G, autonomous flight, and how it complements ground-based networks.

World Mobile acquired Stratospheric Platforms Ltd in 2025, gaining decades of R&D, all patents, and a mature hydrogen-powered stratospheric tech stack. This smart acquisition fast-tracks WMS to market, combining proven high-altitude 5G technology with World Mobile's existing terrestrial layers for truly global hybrid coverage.
The company is no newcomer to aerial innovation: it previously pioneered tethered aerostats for rural connectivity, deploying them in Africa.

The Starlink Question:
A common question about World Mobile is whether Starlink (or satellite internet in general) competes with it—or could even make it obsolete.
The reality? They're not direct competitors.
World Mobile's decentralized terrestrial network (using ground-based AirNodes on buildings, aerostats, and stratospheric platforms) excels at high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity in denser or clustered areas—precisely where physics limits satellites.
Terrestrial nodes (like building-mounted AirNodes) do not compete with Starlink; they target different use cases, with satellites shining in remote, low-density, or mobile scenarios (e.g., rural gaps, ships, planes).

Elon confirms terrestrial nodes do not compete with Starlink, however, World Mobile Stratospheric (WMS) platforms do position themselves as a strong alternative to satellites in many scenarios. Operating at just 20,000 meters altitude (vs. Starlink's ~550 km orbit), WMS delivers dramatically lower latency—around 3-6 ms total—compared to Starlink's typical 25-60 ms. This near-terrestrial performance enables seamless streaming, gaming, and real-time applications for thousands of users in proximity, without the beam contention or capacity dilution satellites face at scale.
WMS also offers advantages in deployment cost (far cheaper and faster than launching/maintaining satellites), flexibility (easier redeployment), and direct-to-handset 5G—no user dishes required. Backed by proprietary technology—including a precision-engineered 3m phased-array antenna (with hundreds of steerable beams), hydrogen-powered endurance aircraft, and inherited intellectual property from Stratospheric Platforms Ltd.—WMS builds a significant moat against competitors.
Bottom line: Ground-based and stratospheric infrastructure like World Mobile's wins on performance, cost, and capacity in populated or targeted areas, while satellites fill vast remote gaps. Together, they accelerate global digital inclusion more effectively than either could alone.
Conclusion
World Mobile is pioneering new efficient telecom and WiFi networks across several continents, while the big carrier companies are coasting, without any innovation in decades, and overhead costs from running their legacy business models making it impossible to compete in under-served areas. The Wise Vaults are a way for anyone to participate and earn from World Mobile's efforts, backed by the safety of a recession-proof and stable income source.
Last updated