World Mobile, a user-owned mobile network built on blockchain infrastructure, has gone live on Base — and the official @base account spotlighted it as a featured app this week.

What Is World Mobile?

World Mobile lets anyone deploy an AirNode — a small piece of hardware that extends mobile coverage in their area — and earn token rewards for doing so. Instead of infrastructure owned by AT&T or Verizon, the network is operated by its users. Coverage now reaches 99% of the USA and more than 60 countries worldwide.

The project runs on the $WMTx token on Base. Node operators earn rewards tied to actual data traffic, not just staking emissions. The network separates roles: AirNode operators provide radio coverage, while EarthNode operators process telecom data and stake tokens to secure the chain layer.

By the Numbers

Community accounts reporting on the launch cited over 100,000 AirNodes deployed globally and roughly 3 million daily active users — though these figures come from social commentary and haven't been independently verified against on-chain data. The worldmobile.io site shows 1.6M+ unique users in 24h and 600TB+ of daily network consumption at time of writing.

Why Base?

Moving to Base gives World Mobile access to low-cost transactions for micropayment-style reward flows — essential when nodes are earning fractions of a token per gigabyte routed. Coinbase's distribution and the Base ecosystem's growing consumer layer add credibility and liquidity for $WMTx.

DePIN has been a persistent Web3 thesis, but World Mobile is one of the few with live coverage at scale.