An internet-of-things connectivity startup called Helium has both buzzwords and boldface names going for it. But the business model behind its vision of long-range, low-power, peer-to-peer networking still needs one ingredient: a way to put dollars into the bank accounts of the people building this system.

The idea behind Helium is to provide a trickle of bandwidth to IoT devices that may not be anywhere near a power outlet—and to do so securely, without relying on proprietary technology, and at a cost almost too cheap to meter.

“Those are things that aren’t possible today,” says chief operating officer Frank Mong. The San Francisco firm—cofounded in 2013 by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, with funding from such high-profile venture capital firms as Union Square Ventures—sees its only path in a peer-to-peer architecture.

Helium has no aspirations of building out a network like AT&T,” Mong says. “We cannot do it as a single, centralized entity.”

Last week, the company announced that its decentralized network of 1,200-plus hotspots placed in people’s homes and offices had reached more than 425 cities spanning 45 of 50 states across the U.S., with a software development kit now available.

Each of those $495 rectangular hotspots shares a broadband connection via a wireless technology called LongFi that delivers a little data a long distance over unlicensed 900 MHz spectrum.

“We’ve seen it as far as 25 miles away,” Mong says of LongFi range, although the company’s site suggests 10-plus miles is more realistic. That’s allowed such early markets as Austin and San Francisco to get close to complete coverage, while Manhattan will need another 150 or so hotspots on top of the 100-plus already online there.