Carlos Lei: When The Power Grid Fails, Our Digital World Shouldn't Die With It
As power outages worldwide expose the fragility of centralized infrastructure, a shift toward decentralized, community-driven networks offers a path to resilience.
This spring, when blackouts swept across Spain, France, and Portugal, millions lost more than just electricity. They lost their connection to the world. A few months later, the same story played out in the Czech Republic. The immediate question is, who's next? This wasn't just an energy failure. It was a fundamental breakdown of the systems we rely on for public safety, access to information, and emergency response.
And this isn't an isolated European issue. It's a global pattern revealing a deep design flaw in how we've built modern society. South Africa endures regular, debilitating outages. A nationwide blackout in Pakistan in 2023 affected tens of millions.
And when a snowstorm hit Texas in 2021, it didn't just knock out the power; it took down the telecom infrastructure right alongside it. In every case, the story is the same: when the lights go out, our digital lives go dark, too. The crisis isn't just about power; it's about the fragility of our connections.
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The core of the problem is that our infrastructure is stuck in the past. These grids were designed for a predictable, 20th-century world, not for the volatile demands of today. They are straining to integrate intermittent renewables while simultaneously feeding our insatiable demand for data, a demand projected to nearly double the tech sector's energy use by 2030. It's a dangerous cocktail: aging hardware, new energy dynamics, and runaway demand, all piled onto a centralized system not built to flex.
Resilience will come from the edges, not the center
The problem isn't bad luck; it's bad design. Our critical infrastructure was built for a world of predictable stability, where a centralized, top-down model made sense. But in an era defined by climate shocks, cyber threats, and geopolitical uncertainty, that centralization has become our greatest vulnerability. We've learned the hard way that true, modern resilience will come from distribution, not from reinforcing a single point of failure.
This is where a new wave of decentralized infrastructure, often called Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN), offers a powerful alternative. Instead of relying solely on massive, centralized providers, these systems build connectivity from the ground up through community-driven solutions like mesh networks and peer-to-peer nodes.
If the main system fails, these smaller, interconnected networks can continue to operate, creating a vital digital safety net. The World Economic Forum projects the DePIN market could reach $3.5 trillion by 2028, underscoring the growing institutional and economic interest in this model. This isn't a futuristic concept—it's already being proven in the real world.
When Hurricane Sandy left New York City in the dark, residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn, relied on a local mesh network they had built themselves, keeping their community online when the city's major providers were down. In Dharamsala, India, Tibetan exiles, faced with chronically unreliable power, ingeniously patched together their own decentralized wireless network to stay connected. And across developing regions today, community-deployed, router-based networks are providing internet access where traditional telecom infrastructure simply doesn't reach. These examples aren't just feel-good stories; they're a blueprint for a more resilient future.
What truly separates these networks from temporary, volunteer-run efforts is their sustainable economic engine. Many DePIN models use token incentives to reward individuals and businesses for contributing to the network—whether by running a router, a sensor, or a computer node. This creates a powerful flywheel effect: as the network becomes more useful, demand for its services grows, which in turn drives value back to the contributors, incentivizing further expansion. It's a bottom-up approach that allows infrastructure to scale organically, driven by user participation rather than massive, top-down capital expenditure.
Rewiring our approach to critical infrastructure
So, what do we do? We have to stop trying to patch an old model and start investing seriously in a new one. To prevent the next major breakdown, both governments and businesses must champion the development of decentralized, fail-safe communications infrastructure that can operate independently of a fragile power grid.
For governments, this means getting proactive. They can launch regulatory sandboxes where emerging decentralized communication technologies can be tested safely and effectively. It means writing new resilience standards into telecom regulations that account for grid-down scenarios. And it means funding and incentivizing infrastructure not just in gleaming urban hubs, but in the vulnerable zones that need it most—rural areas, regions with aging grids, and critical transport and utility corridors.
For the private sector, the mandate is to stop thinking in silos. Telecom operators should be exploring partnerships with DePIN providers and strategically deploying their own backup nodes that are independent of the main grid. They should be supporting experiments with mesh solutions in high-risk communities and embedding fallback connectivity systems into the very fabric of urban planning, logistics, and emergency infrastructure.
Connectivity is not a luxury
As our world grows more turbulent and unpredictable, we must accept a new reality: reliable connectivity is no longer a convenience. It has become a core public utility, as essential as clean water and electricity.
And just like our energy systems are learning to adapt with microgrids and renewables, our communication networks must evolve. They must become decentralized, adaptive, and fundamentally resilient by design. The next crisis is a matter of when, not if. The work to prepare our digital lifelines must start now.
Carlos Lei is co-founder and CEO of Uplink, the first decentralized wireless internet connectivity ecosystem, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. He has been nominated and recognized by EUtop50 as a mentor and "Innovation Leader" in Europe. This Expert Opinion is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.
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