Volk Fi: Distributed network smartphone
This makes a bit more sense:"Every Volk phone has a SIM card slot and supports use on traditional LTE networks.However, a SIM is not necessary and the phone will always prioritize the Volk network first.The Volk network works as such: every Volk user gets a special router with their phone. The router acts as a wireless Qi charging pad also. The router connects to your existing internet via Ethernet or something similar.The router is what connects phones to Volk and allows calls, texts, and data to go through.If a router isn't nearby, the phone will try to find another Volk phone to use as a hop, until it finally reaches a router.All Volk phones have strong radios and can go more than half a mile if terrain is clear.If there are no routers or Volk phones nearby to hop to, you'll either not have service, have to use Wifi, or fallback to LTE if you have a SIM card installed and it has active service."(https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/aq3hul/volk_fi_claim...)So the backbone of the mesh network is their charging stations / routers, and phones can (?) mesh but not necessarily that far.What I still don't like about this is that nowhere they talk about the frequencies on which they operate, not even in the "Specs" section of the website. This makes it very hard to verify any range claims they make.