Do you remember the Fon Wireless endeavor [1]? It failed in the past, it doesn't mean it will fail now and using crypto for rewards seems a good idea in this case to reduce the friction in payment systems. It would be good to analyze more fundamentals. In this case I see crypto as a second success factor.
Participants who host a 5g cell site on the network are rewarded in project specific crypto tokens. Similarly opted in mobile subscribers who verify the cell sites are also rewarded in tokens. [1][2]
A coverage map of the IoT network and mobile network (see the menu) can be seen here: https://explorer.helium.com/
And a little more info on the network incentives is talked about in this blog post: https://blog.helium.com/mobile-proof-of-coverage-the-road-ah...
1: https://blog.hellohelium.com/you-asked-we-answered/
2: https://youtu.be/cDhTOiJ1Qtk