Helium, the company behind the Helium Network, says the first stores of Wakefern Food Corp., the cooperative behind ShopRite, are now carrying phone-carrier traffic over their own Wi-Fi. This is Helium’s announcement alone. TSN found no statement from Wakefern or from SignaConnect, the firm Helium says runs the deployment, and Helium discloses neither how many stores are live nor which carriers use them.
Spotted via @helium on X, the company’s own post; primary source is Helium’s blog post [1].
What Helium says
Company-reported. Helium’s blog, dated 8 October 2026, says: “The first Wakefern stores are live on the Helium Network, with more locations to follow.” [1] It describes Wakefern as “the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, with 48 member companies operating some 365 supermarkets across nine states”, under banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Fairway Market and Gourmet Garage. It also calls Wakefern a “$20.7 billion business”. Those describe the whole cooperative, not the live stores. The blog says the deployment is “designed and managed by SignaConnect”, which it calls a managed service provider [1].
What Wi-Fi offload and Passpoint mean
Wi-Fi offload means a mobile carrier’s customers are moved onto a building’s Wi-Fi while they are inside, so the phone keeps working where cell signal is weak. Helium says supermarkets are such a place: concrete walls, steel racking and refrigeration cases weaken coverage, and the usual fix, indoor cellular antennas, is expensive [1].
Passpoint is the standard that makes the switch automatic. It is built into modern phones, and Helium says the result is “No app, no sign-in, no splash page”, with the phone handing back to cellular on the way out [1]. TSN covered the same approach at Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.
How Helium describes its network
Helium’s pitch is that a venue that already owns Wi-Fi can let carriers use it and earn more as more carrier traffic arrives, instead of buying separate antennas [1]. It says its network now has “more than 45,000 locations keeping over 1.4 million people connected every day”. That is a company figure, not checked by TSN. For the wider idea, see TSN’s DePIN explainer.
What is not disclosed
The blog gives no number of Wakefern stores live, no carrier names, no traffic volumes and no commercial terms [1]. Solana Compass, which reported the news on 9 October, says the same and notes it could not find a statement from Wakefern or SignaConnect [2]. Solana Compass’s headline says the stores are “carrying carrier traffic”; Helium’s blog says Wakefern is “beginning to convert” store Wi-Fi to carry carrier traffic [1].
The Bottom Line
Helium says the first Wakefern supermarkets are live on its Wi-Fi offload network. The size of the rollout is unknown, and only Helium has spoken. This is not investment advice.
Related on TSN: Helium at Bryant-Denny: stadium Wi-Fi that carries carrier traffic · What Is DePIN? Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Explained
Sources
- Helium, “Wakefern Grocery Stores Spent 80 Years Sharing Infrastructure. Now That Includes the Wi-Fi.”, Helium blog, 8 October 2026 (company blog, primary source). https://www.helium.com/blog/wakefern-grocery-stores-join-helium-network
- Solana Compass, “Helium Says First Wakefern Grocery Stores Are Live on the Helium Network, Carrying Carrier Traffic Over Store Wi-Fi”, 9 October 2026 (secondary report). https://solanacompass.com/news/helium-says-first-wakefern-grocery-stores-are-live-on-the-helium-network-carrying-carrier-traffic-over-store-wi-fi
- Helium (@helium), X post, 9 October 2026, 15:55 BST (14:55 UTC per the X API; company’s own account; finder credit). https://x.com/helium/status/2108572186852179993
