NBA champion Tristan Thompson announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 that he is partnering with global telecommunications company World Mobile to launch a community mobile network called Uplift. The network offers unlimited data plans starting at $9.99 per month.
Uplift is based on blockchain technology and a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN).
With Uplift, each subscription will help expand the network at the neighborhood level, while local hosts known as “AirNode operators” will earn a portion of the network’s revenue by providing community coverage. The idea behind Uplift is to challenge the centralized model of the $2 trillion telecom industry by allowing users and local operators to share the value they create.
“For me, it’s about how can I help people who have walked the same life that I’ve walked, and I think for us, what we’re doing is providing connectivity and connectivity for unlimited data at a much lower cost,” Thompson said on stage. “It’s like, how can I help my community have a better tomorrow? And that’s what it’s all about. And I’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have a team that understands that vision. And we want to help people in America, help downtown, and just give people hope.”
While Thompson is known for his basketball career and winning an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he is also an outspoken advocate for innovation and inclusion. Thompson currently holds four C-suite roles in the web3 and fintech landscape. He is the chief digital equity officer at World Mobile and the lead advisor at AxonDAOan AI-powered medical research platform inspired by his brother’s epilepsy journey.
He is also the co-founder of Basketball Fun, a web3 platform that brands NBA players, and is the chief content officer at Tracy AI, an AI platform for real-time sports analytics.
With this latest effort, Thompson and World Mobile seek to ensure affordable, community-owned internet access.
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World Mobile says this is a proven and scalable model, having piloted it in Reno, Nevada, where community hosts earn more than $10,000 a year providing coverage in underserved areas. Uplift operates on infrastructure already proven through World Mobile’s US deployments, World Mobile says.
“We’ve brought about 20 percent of Reno back to connectivity,” Thompson said. “When the hurricane happened in North Carolina and Asheville, Starlink went over there and tried to bring connectivity, and they couldn’t, so they reached out to the World Mobile team and we were able to go out there and send some of our helicopter guys to fly in and we were actually the ones that brought connectivity back to Asheville, North Carolricina.”
The new service will begin rolling out soon in Cleveland, Ohio, and will roll out to other cities in 2026.
World Mobile notes that more than 50 million Americans live at or near the poverty line, with many lacking access to affordable high-speed data. Uplift aims to expand access while ensuring that the wealth created by mobile use stays in the neighborhoods that create it.
